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AbacusTech

How do you top the iPhone X’s notch? ZTE wants two notches

Forget dual cameras, are dual notches the next smartphone trend?

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The concept phone, named Iceberg, is entirely made of glass. (Picture: iF World Design Guide)
Xinmei Shen
This article originally appeared on ABACUS

How do you stand out when almost every smartphone on the market has a notch? By having two notches.

The notch, made popular by iPhone X, was designed to make the screen as big as possible while also finding space for the selfie camera, speaker and an array of sensors.

But ZTE seems to think that one notch isn’t enough. It filed a patent application for a phone with two notches in September last year, which was recently published by China's intellectual property office.

ZTE’s patent application, filed in September 2017, was published last week. (Picture: State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C.)
ZTE’s patent application, filed in September 2017, was published last week. (Picture: State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C.)
Of course, patents don’t always equal products. In this case, it might: A ZTE phone with two notches was spotted on a German design award site.

The phone, named Iceberg, has a notch on the top -- and one on the bottom, too. But it’s hard to say exactly what it’s for. It would be a natural place for the home button or fingerprint sensor (or both), but it seems too small to be either.

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