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Shocker: Samsung is working on a phone design that copies the iPhone X’s notch

Updated Apr 17th, 2018 12:10PM EDT
Samsung Galaxy S10

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Look at that notch in the image at the top of the screen, Samsung fans. You thought you had escaped it, didn’t you? You thought that somehow, some way, Samsung was going to be the one major player in the smartphone market that didn’t shameless copy Apple’s latest iPhone design. But alas, it appears as though old habits can be difficult to kick. Samsung is a company that rose to the top of the smartphone industry by shamelessly copying every Apple product it could. The company literally wrote the book on copying Apple. And now, it appears as though Samsung is going back to its old playbook by working on a new smartphone design that blatantly copies Apple’s tenth-anniversary iPhone.

Hardcore Android fans hate the notch. They really, really hate the notch. That makes sense, of course, since it’s a design feature that Apple popularized. Sadly, it looks like there’s almost no escape from the notch in 2018, because nearly every Android phone maker out there is stealing Apple’s notch and using the design on their own phones. From tiny non-name Chinese smartphone makers to some of the biggest brands in the world like Huawei and LG, Android vendors simply can’t get enough of Apple’s iPhone X design. Just look at this image, which shows 20 different iPhone X copycats in one picture.

Samsung is so committed to the Infinity screen design, we thought we might escape seeing yet another iPhone X copycat emerge from the world’s leading smartphone maker. Alas, Samsung has many different smartphone models, not just high-end Galaxy S and Galaxy Note phones, and we may see Samsung swipe Apple’s notched display design on one or several upcoming smartphones.

In a Samsung patent application made public last month and spotted recently by Dutch gadget blog Mobielkopen, the South Korean consumer tech giant has shown that it’s toying with the idea of building an iPhone X copycat. The patent was filed with SIPO, which is China’s equivalent of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) back in 2016, which may be around the same time Samsung Display began working with Apple on the notched OLED screens that would ultimately end up in the iPhone X. We don’t need to dive too deep into the details of the patent, because a picture is worth a thousand words. Behold:

Remember how crazy Android fans went when I suggested that the Galaxy S9 might’ve been even better if it had cloned the iPhone X’s display design? Well, we may soon see the idea of a Samsung phone with the iPhone X’s notch become a reality.

Last updated at 12:08 PM EDT

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.