The Notch... it's Big... it's Black... it's Bold... it's Beautiful

[mustang7757]

I prefer the Pixel notch

Team iPhone, lol

 

[mustang7757]

But not enough cameras or speakers! Otherwise agree

Where would the earpiece be ?

 

[Mike Dee]

Team iPhone, lol

No....the little notch looks weird

 

[anon(10092459)]

So this whole notch thing ... While I'm not a fan, I also don't think they are that big of a deal either way. I run a skinny device, so not a lot of games or video like Netflix or anything like that. Just don't spend a lot of time where screen really matters that much ..

Notches are just a stutter step to full screen anyways ..

 

[mustang7757]

No....the little notch looks weird

Better then Google unibrow !!
The small notch is winking at you mike

 

[dsignori]

I don't particularly care one way or the other about a generic notch. I'd rather not have one, i suppose, but a small, well done notch wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

From the leaks though, the 3 XL one seems a bit too large for whatever it is we'd be gaining. I don't care about face ID if that's it. It works very well on my Note 9, but I turned it off because I prefer the FPS.

So again I don't hate the notch, it's not a deal breaker, but I see very little value in it, and I'd much rather have all my notification icons if given the choice.

Now a tiny one like the Essential phone ..

 

[ClintRo]

I think the notch is really ugly and worst I've seen on a smartphone. Every other company seems to have a reasonable sized notch, except Google.

But don't worry, they put the notch that big in there so they could add a second camera for super selfies. Because it's more important to put a second lens in the front for selfies than it is to put on the back for better photography....

What I don't get is the Selfies on the Pixel 2 line front facing camera are already superb.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

and I'd much rather have all my notification icons if given the choice.

Only problem here is that the new limit on notifications applies to all phones running P or higher, regardless of whether or not they have a notch.

 

[ClintRo]

For example.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

One of the biggest frustrations people have with the portrait mode on the P2/P2XL is when it screws up the lines on things - sometimes it blurs out people's hair, or ears, etc. Having two lenses to get a better read on depth will alleviate a lot of that. And that is more true on the front camera due to the general distance it's being used compared to the subject, vs. the rear camera that can be more accurate with a subject that's further away using only the AI and the dual pixel setup.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

I don't agree the notch is beautiful. It's functional and an improvement from the 2XL, but it is still kinda huge. The only redeeming factor aesthetically is that it looks kind of like a cute robot face. My tiny robot face notch is named "Giovanni" but I call it "Jo". Every morning, "hi Jo, you look well rested"...

Then Jo goes:

¯\_(O_O)_/¯


Because phone looks like this:

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\_(O_O)_/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

 

[dsignori]

Only problem here is that the new limit on notifications applies to all phones running P or higher, regardless of whether or not they have a notch.

Yup, it sucks just as hard on my Pixel 2 XL, for example. The definition of compounding a problem..

 

[Mike Dee]

Only problem here is that the new limit on notifications applies to all phones running P or higher, regardless of whether or not they have a notch.

I'm thinking or at least hoping that they should be able to fix that

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

What I don't get is the Selfies on the Pixel 2 line front facing camera are already superb.

Yeah, I guess Google want to make them even better which is great for those who take a lot of selfies. Whereas for me personally, I would have preferred extra lenses on the back of the phone for better normal photography.

Looks to me that they're going to be targeting the Instagram crowd.

 

[cardboard60]

Wouldn't you think Google being such a Big company could of figured this out.
Better lens on the front.
And no notch on the 3XL.
And they have been talking about catching up with Samsung.

Totally trips me out about who is designing the phone.

 

[Mike Dee]

I don't agree the notch is beautiful. It's functional and an improvement from the 2XL, but it is still kinda huge. The only redeeming factor aesthetically is that it looks kind of like a cute robot face. My tiny robot face notch is named "Giovanni" but I call it "Jo". Every morning, "hi Jo, you look well rested"...

Then Jo goes:

¯\_(O_O)_/¯


Because phone looks like this:

|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\_(O_O)_/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|

The beautiful is part of the make believe slogan I drummed up but I don't think it's ugly

 

[J Dubbs]

What I don't get is the Selfies on the Pixel 2 line front facing camera are already superb.

The V40 has almost exactly the same notch setup with dual front cameras in pretty much the exact same configuration...... it's for face ID. I'm sure that's the same purpose of the dual front cameras on the pixel 3xl. That's probably the surprise they're going to spring on us lol. I'm surprised we haven't heard more about that..... that really is the next tech step Google needs to keep up with the Joneses ;-)

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

The V40 has almost exactly the same notch setup with dual front cameras in pretty much the exact same configuration...... it's for face ID. I'm sure that's the same purpose of the dual front cameras on the pixel 3xl. That's probably the surprise they're going to spring on us lol. I'm surprised we haven't heard more about that..... that really is the next tech step Google needs to keep up with the Joneses ;-)

I don't think it's a face ID sensor, or at least the Russian bloggers didn't mention anything about an ID scanner in the sense that Apple has.

I think it's just a secondary camera for better selfies.

 

[J Dubbs]

I don't think it's a face ID sensor, or at least the Russian bloggers didn't mention anything about an ID scanner in the sense that Apple has.

I think it's just a secondary camera for better selfies.

You could be right, but it seems kinda over the top to have those 2 comparatively large cameras in that even comparatively larger notch just for better selfies...... you can't tell the difference between 1 or 2 cameras anyway, front cameras have gotten that good, like many have mentioned and shown. It just doesn't make sense... Google knew when they stuck that huge notch on the phone it was going to be controversial. I can't see them doing it strictly for super selfies.

There's gotta be a more sinister, conspiratorial reason LoL.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

Has everyone forgotten that a new "face authentication framework" has been publicly in AOSP for 6 months now?

Here's a few key points.

"Add face authentication capability to TrustManager and Keyguard"

What's Keyguard? Oh, that's whatever it is that you use to bypass your lockscreen. Examples, a pattern, password, pin, swipe, fingerprint or your face.

"Unlike fingerprint, only one face template can be enrolled per user, and a vendor message is passed from the HAL all the way to the client callback to allow GUI indication about the enrolled face template".

What? Isn't there already "Trusted Face"? Yes, there is. And this isn't that. That is not considered biometric data, that is considered to be a form of avoiding locking, under the "Smart Lock" category of your settings, which includes On Body Detection, Trusted Places, Trusted Devices, Trusted Face and Voice Match. This does not use the same pathways.

But Mario! When I'm reading through the code, what in the world is "android.hardware.face"? That's a great question. I would suggest we ask Google that in 24 days.

The main reason this is interesting code, is because it modifies the TrustManager and Keyguard in order to "eliminate duplication". Essentially, Trusted Face currently exists, whatever "face authentication" ends up being called is, would cause duplication of functionality, and so TrustManager is being modified to eliminate Trusted Face so that there isn't redundancy.

But Mario! Why do we think this will be in the Pixel 3 in 24 days, and isn't just some Pie in the sky (haha) thing Google wants to do at some point? I dunno, the heck do I know?

I just think it's a little interesting, as noted by Sam Afolabbi of TecHLecTor, that the guy who added all this code to the project is one of the main people at Intel who added similar functionality into Intel's RealSense, which is used by a whole lot of windows PC's to introduce face unlock functionality through Windows Hello. That doesn't indicate anything about the Pixel 3, but it does indicate that a somethign that reminds us of FaceID is coming to AOSP and replacing Trusted Face.

I think it'd be interesting if someone in the community who had a Pixel 3 or 3 XL or a Pixelbook 2018 (the one that doesn't look like the Surface) and could screenshot the settings on one of those devices.

That'd be neat. Personally I sorta like the FPS more than FaceID.