What’s better than one notch? No notches? Don’t be silly! Sharp has just unveiled the Aquos R2 Compact, a smartphone that features a notch at the top of the screen and a notch at the bottom of the screen.
And it looks… interesting.
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The top notch is U-shaped, similar to the one on the Essential Phone − aka the original notched smartphone − and houses the R2 Compact’s 8-megapixel front-facing camera and facial recognition tech.
The bottom notch, meanwhile, is wider and flatter, and allows the R2 Compact to have a front-mounted fingerprint scanner without having a huge chin too. That said, the handset’s bezels aren’t exactly super-slim.
The R2 Compact looks a lot better than its predecessor though. Last year’s Aquos R Compact had a slightly larger notch at the top and opted for a huge, ugly-looking chin instead of a second notch. Not a pretty sight.
Earlier this year, Google published notch guidelines for developers that made it clear that “you won’t see multiple cutouts on a single edge or more than two cutouts on a device”, and that fact the left and right sides of the phone screen are also off limits to screen cutouts.
The R2 Compact features a 5.2-inch, 2280 x 1080 IGZO display, a Snapdragon 845 processor with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot for up to 512GB of extra storage, a 22.6-megapixel primary camera, a 2500mAh battery and Android 9 Pie.
Not annoying at all
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It’s available in Smokey Green, Pure Black and Deep White colour schemes, but is likely to be restricted to the Japanese market when it’s released next year, The Verge reports. There’s no word yet on pricing.
What are your thoughts on the notch? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews. Don’t hold back.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
