Carl Pei confirms that the OnePlus 6 will have a notch

Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, has officially confirmed that the OnePlus 6 will have a notch. He puts a positive spin on it and describes it as “adding more screen real estate instead of taking anything away”.

Pei defends the decision by saying the OnePlus notch will be implemented better than other Android makers have managed. The notch on the OnePlus 6 will measure 19.62 x 7.69mm. A smaller notch would mean smaller camera module, which in turn means lower quality photos. The same goes for the earpiece. And people want their notification LEDs.

The notch is larger than Essential’s, but smaller than iPhone X’s. Then again, the X has a minified Kinect in there. Pei doesn’t feel the need to use such a complicated sensor, so the OnePlus 6 will likely stick to the camera-based face recognition and fingerprint reader.

The new model will free up room on the bottom as well by replacing the standard Android navigation buttons with gestures... just like the iPhone X. Essentially, Apple is paving the way forward and as component suppliers produce parts for the new iPhone, those parts become available to Android makers too, including OnePlus.

Carl Pei is careful to avoid mentioning the Oppo R15, which laid down the hardware blueprint for the OnePlus 6 as Oppo R phones have done for OnePlus phones in the past few years. That doesn’t invalidate his claims, but other than a woodgrain back, the 6 will not have a terribly original design.

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