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What’s your favorite notch alternative? (Poll of the Week)
August 20, 2025
Last week’s poll summary:Last week,we asked youto choose your favorite phone from#phonepocalypse. Out ofover 2,200 votes on the website, 31 percent of voters said theOnePlus 6Twas their favorite phone of October 2018. TheHUAWEI Mate 20/Procame in second with 28 percent of the votes, while thePixel 3 and 3 XLcame in third with 19 percent.
Despite what every company seems to think, not everyone is crazy about smartphone notches. They leave less room for notifications in the status bar and make phones feel non-symmetrical. So, some phone makers are trying to get creative with figuring out how to remove as much top bezel as possible while not includinga big ol’ notchat the top of the screen.
First, let’s talk Samsung. All of Samsung’srecent flagship phonessimply have a slightly bigger bezel on the top of the display to house the front-facing camera and earpiece. No fancy sliding mechanisms,no over engineering.
Next up is my favorite, theXiaomi Mi Mix 3. This phone features a slider mechanism similar to what we’ve seen on other devices, but it’s operated manually instead of automatically. Just pull down on the screen to expose the front-facing camera on the rear mechanism, and face unlock will kick in right away. I don’t know what it is, but that quick snapping motion is really cool to me.
Then we have devices like theOPPO Find Xandvivo Nex. These phones have sliding mechanisms too, but theyautomatically activate when you wake the phone. It’s a novel idea, and certainly the most futuristic-looking method we’ve seen.
We want to know your favorite. Do you prefer Samsung’s bigger bezels, Xiaomi’s manual slider, or OPPO/Vivo’s automatic slide-out cameras? Or do you prefer display notches? Let us know by casting your vote in the poll, and speak up in the comments if you have anything to add.
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