Google's Pixel 3 XL, which includes a very tall notch and a “chin” bezel, lacks the groundbreaking tech Apple used to justify the iPhone X's notch
A large notch requires a strong argument, and Google didn't make one — Google's Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL arrived yesterday without too much fanfare.
Context & Ripple Effects
When Apple cut the notch into the iPhone X to house Face ID hardware, the compromise came with a functional argument even as it created UI quirks in photos, videos, and games. A year later, Google's $799 Pixel 3 and $899 Pixel 3 XL launch copies the cutout on the XL's 6.3-inch screen while keeping traditional bezels above and below — including the chin — with no equivalent sensor story to point to.
That gap is exactly what early coverage seized on: The Verge's follow-up review praises the camera, screen, and speakers but flags the notch as goofy, suggesting the design borrowed the cost of Apple's trade-off without its payoff.
First-order effects
- Pixel 3 XL buyers at Verizon and unlocked channels get a flagship whose most visible design feature is a liability reviewers mock rather than a capability they use, putting pressure on Google's $899+ price positioning against the iPhone XS tier.
- Apple's justification template — sensors behind glass — becomes the yardstick every notch is measured against, and Google currently fails it.
Second-order effects
- Google retreats within one cycle: the Pixel 4 and 4 XL arrive the next October with no notch at all, swapping the cutout for gesture recognition and a dual rear camera pitch instead.
- Rival flagships face the same fork — justify the cutout with real hardware or eat the criticism — a dynamic Apple itself hits when it ships a MacBook Pro notch without Face ID inside.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, signature design language migrates between platforms faster than the underlying technology does, forcing vendors to either invest in the sensors that make a visual compromise defensible or abandon the look — as Google did by Pixel 4.
- Notches become a cautionary case study in copying form without function, pushing the industry toward under-display sensors and software workarounds rather than visible cutouts.
The trend: Flagship phone design is converging on rival aesthetics faster than on rival engineering, and vendors that copy a hardware-driven compromise without the hardware pay for it in reviews and reverse course within a generation.