One of the criticisms people seem to have with modern smartphone design is that they come with a notch. The notch is something of a necessity because that’s where components like sensors and cameras will be housed, and this is required if manufacturers want to achieve an edge-to-edge display with minimal bezels.
However it seems that Apple is exploring the idea of creating an iPhone that will have as small a notch of a possible, and a recently discovered patent has revealed a design which features a display with a hole cutout for the front-facing camera. This means that instead of a long rectangular notch, it will only be a small hole for the front camera.
What’s interesting is that this is not the first time we’ve seen such a design. As PhoneArena points out, companies such as Huawei have also filed patents for a similar-ish design, while Samsung has also unveiled such a display that would allow them to create a phone with even thinner bezels.
There was even a leak back in October that showed ASUS was toying with a similar idea for the ZenFone 6. We have to say that while we understand where companies are coming from, the off-center hole is actually somewhat distracting, especially for a company such as Apple who tends to favor symmetrical designs. However since this is a patent, there’s no guarantee that it will actually come to pass.