I think it all boils down to basically 10 years of building up the worlds most valuble company.
Essential wanted an all screen phone, fair enough. Good idea, bold move. They didn't have the clout to get Samsung to develop custom panels to achieve this. The solution was a chin and a notch. That's not an all screen phone, it's a compromise. Fair enough, their business model is such that if they choose that path they have to compromise.
Apple probably saw it, and though we've always wanted to do an all screen phone, let's see how well we can pull it off. Samsung made the bendable oled panels and moved the connector to the rear. They only did this because apple would be ordering millions of screens (hence my first comment, apple have the money and the buyers). The result was an all screen display minus the notch. The notch is wide due to the IR cameras for faceid.
Then follows all other android handsets with similar sized notches to apples (not essentials....until the teardrop 6t) not because of faceid, but just because. They also have the chin due to the connector. I get the point about moving the notifications up a bit, but I stand by my early comments about design. It's poor design. I'm not saying it's not usable, or serves a purpose......but it's poor design.
I always think if you are going to do something, do it right or don't bother. The black out feature would solve all these problems. Notifications move up to give more screen space, and you achieve good design (well, 99% good design you still have odd sizes speaker grills).
Having front facing speakers gives a reason for the chin, not just because they cant develop bendable panels. So fair play on that front.
I do think that now HTC are involved the pixel 4 xl will look really good.
p.s. The smaller pixel 3 is stunning
liked it on the Huawei P20 Pro as well... think its just nice for a change.
