iPhone X's notch, used to house Face ID hardware, leads to UI quirks and design compromises, especially when viewing photos and videos or playing games
Hot or notch? — Apple's new iPhone X has a spectacular edge-to-edge display that dominates the entire front of the device.
Context & Ripple Effects
When Apple unveiled the 5.8-inch edge-to-edge OLED iPhone X with no home button, the notch was presented as the necessary home for the Face ID sensor array — a hardware constraint dressed as a design signature. The question at launch was whether apps and media would survive the cutout.
Early reviews split the difference: The Verge's first-24-hours verdict called the notch ugly but fading from view, while BuzzFeed's week-one take praised the all-screen experience yet flagged weird software UX choices around it. The pattern that followed is telling — Google shipped a tall notch on the Pixel 3 XL without the sensor tech to justify it, and by 2021 Apple put a notch on the MacBook Pro while leaving out Face ID entirely.
First-order effects
- App developers and game studios shipping on the iPhone X must rework layouts to avoid the sensor cutout, with photos, video, and full-screen games bearing the brunt of the letterboxing and safe-area compromises.
Second-order effects
- Rivals face pressure to match the all-screen look: Google's Pixel 3 XL adopts a very tall notch plus a chin bezel, copying the visual idiom without the Face ID hardware that gave Apple's version a functional excuse.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the notch detaches from its original rationale and becomes a portable design language — Apple's own later move of notching the MacBook Pro without including Face ID shows the cutout surviving as branding even where the sensors never ship.
The trend: The notch is evolving from a Face ID engineering necessity into an industry-wide design signature that gets copied with or without the hardware that justified it.