‘Notch it Up’: Best Phones in the Market That Sport a Notch

Here are a few smartphones with a notch you can buy under Rs 40,000 in India.

The trend of the notch started with the iPhone X and since then, we have seen a flurry of Android phones with a notch coming in the market.

(Photo: The Quint)

Smartphone development has come to a point where the good-looking phones are judged based on their screen-to-body ratio. To make their phones more attractive, manufacturers are extensively putting a notch on their phones in order to achieve maximum amount of screen.

The trend started with the iPhone X and since then, we have seen a flurry of Android phones with a notch coming in the market.

The panoramic display and its futuristic design has made the notch the new ‘in thing’. However, many smartphone users are not comfortable with the notch for several reasons.

Like it or not, it is taking over the smartphone market. Here are few of the best options we have curated for you:

Apple iPhone X

5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display on the iPhone X. 

This is where it all started. Apple's 'all display' design, when revealed was completely different from what we had seen from Apple till that time.

However, the notch on the iPhone X sometimes land you in a spot of bother with content that’s cut off as all apps aren’t optimised to the phone’s aesthetics.

Being the tech giant’s most radically redesigned iPhone ever, Apple kept the iPhone X bezel-less and did away with the fingerprint sensor, making way for the face ID.

The 5.8-inch 'notched' OLED display is quite something – the colours are rich, text is sharp and clean, there’s support for the DCI P3 colour gamut and Dolby Vision HDR for apps that support it.

How the Notch shows up on the iPhone X. 

The iPhone X uses Apple’s A11 Bionic chip which is still one of the best in terms of sheer performance, particularly when it comes to running demanding games and AR apps.

Apple iPhone X gets a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display. 

The camera on the iPhone X has also been widely appreciated. It can shoot 4K videos at up to 60 frames per second. The video is smooth and full of detail. You can also shoot in slow-motion at 240 fps, along with full HD quality.

Price: Starts from Rs 94,300

OnePlus 6

This is the OnePlus 6 and it has a notch. 

The OnePlus 6 was launched earlier this year as a successor to the OnePlus 5T. With a glass body and a notched display, the OnePlus 6 has played a part in getting OnePlus the market position it holds.

The notch on this one is smaller and there is an option to turn it off, as with many notched Android devices now.

OnePlus 6 gets a glass back body this year. 

The glass body on the OnePlus 6 makes it look elegant but compared to using metal finish, we find this less durable. The phone packs the same 16 and 20 megapixel snappers at the back but their sensors have been upgraded, which allows you to shoot 1080p and 4K slow motion recording, up to 60fps.

Price: Starts from Rs 34,999

Asus Zenfone 5z

The Zenfone 5z was launched as Asus’s answer to the OnePlus 6.

Asus launched the Zenfone 5z to challenge the OnePlus 6 in the market.

With a reflective glass back and notched full HD+ display, the Zenfone 5z looks quite good. The compact packaging makes holding the phone a bit easier.

The phone houses a Snapdragon 845 processor bundled with RAM options of 6GB and 8GB. The 5z also has the option of expandable memory.

The glass back on the Zenfone 5z however, is a fingerprint magnet.

Compared to previous versions of ZenUI, Asus seems to have redesigned its interface for the ZenFone 5Z. This results in better performance of the device as a whole.

On the hardware front, the ZenFone 5Z comes with a shortcut key on the right which helps switching between different profiles (silent, vibrate, ring) very quickly.

The Zenfone 5z’s notch.

Price: Rs 29,999

LG G7 ThinQ

LG G7+ ThinQ was launched recently. 

LG is back in the smartphone market in India with its latest G7+ ThinQ at Rs 39,990.

The LG G7 gets a 6.1-inch IPS screen with 3120x1440 pixels resolution, that is high on contrast as well colours, which is LG’s strong suit.

The screen is protected by Corning Glass 5, which isn’t the most durable but gets the job done. It sports a notch, offering 85 percent screen-to-body ratio, as claimed by the company.

The overall feel of the G7+ ThinQ is a mix of glass and metal, that has become the hallmark of various phones in the market this year.

For its size, the G7+ ThinQ is on the lighter side, weighing 162 grams, with 7.9-mm thickness. Most of the lightweight nature of the G7+ ThinQ can be attributed to the use of a 3000mAh battery, smaller than most 6-inch devices. It is one the most handy devices in its segment.

LG G7+ ThinQ has been late to the Indian market. 

The phone comes with Snapdragon 845 processor, paired with 6GB RAM and offering 128GB of storage out-of-the-box.

By pricing it under 40K, LG is hoping to change its fortunes in the high-end Android segment, which is currently lead by OnePlus.

The phone gets a dual 16-megapixel unit with aperture f/1.6 and f/1.9 respectively. The primary sensor gets optical image stabilization (OIS) and laser focus, and strangely, no OIS on the second sensor. LG uses a wide-angle lens, which helps you expand the base while framing for a picture.

USB Type C and audio jack on the LG G7+ ThinQ 

On the front you have an 8-megapixel sensor that primarily caters to your selfie needs. It also gets USB Type C for charging and data transfer, and for security, you get features like face ID as well as voice recognition.

Price: Rs 39,990

Honor Play

The Honor Play is supposed to be a gaming phone from the Huawei sub-brand. 

Since all of the phones on the list are flagship phones from the respective manufacturers, we thought winding this list up with a mid-range, "flagship-like" smartphone.

The Honor Play is supposed to be a gaming phone from the Huawei sub-brand. With 4GB and 6GB RAM options, the phone is quite a performer. The Play has a metal body, which is a welcome change among all the Huawei and Honor reflective glass backs.

The phone comes powered by the tried-and-tested Kirin 970 processor, paired with 6GB and 4GB of RAM.

On the front, the phone’s 19.9:9 aspect ratio gives it maximum screen area, with thin bezels and a notch. The Honor Play uses an IPS LCD display with a 1080x2340 resolution. The display is fairly bright for use in bright sunlight.

The phone comes powered by the tried-and-tested Kirin 970 processor, paired with 6GB and 4GB of RAM.

The Honor Play’s Notch

The Honor Play also has a GPU Turbo feature that makes the graphics perform better and more efficient. The 3,750 mAh battery is enough for a day’s extensive usage.

The phone uses a dual-camera setup at the back, with a 16-megapixel with an f/2.2 aperture and a 2-megapixel f/2.4 aperture. At the front, the Honor Play uses a 16-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture, which actually is similar on paper to the rear camera.

Price: Starts from Rs 19,999