Love them, or hate them, but 2017 has certainly been the year of the "notch" on smartphones. With displays shrugging off their bezels in the quest to be the biggest without increasing the footprint of smartphones, one issue has continually cropped up. In the case of Samsung, it had to move the fingerprint sensor to the back on two of its flagship devices this year. Apple, on the other hand, has embraced facial recognition instead. However, the need for advanced camera technologies on the front of the device has given birth to the "notch" on the iPhone X.
It would seem that Huawei could add a notch to its future devices as well. According to exclusive information uncovered by XDA-Developers - thanks in part to FunkyHuawei.club - configuration files found in the pre-release firmware reference the "RoundCornerDisplay" overlay image, as seen below, which resembles the rounded corners and notch found on devices like the iPhone X.
Beyond that, some of these files explicitly reference the term "notch", that applies to system properties for the top, left, right, and bottom of the display. Furthermore, the aforementioned site noticed some odd resolutions cropping up in the system properties. As discovered, the firmware which applied to an unknown device with a physical resolution of 2160x1080, had system files - charging images, loading screens etc. - coming in at a higher 2244x1080.
This makes sense since some smartphones with a notch come with so-called "wasted space" thanks to the need for a larger display, most prominently seen in the case of Essential"s Ph-1.
Earlier this month we reported on a leak by Evan Blass (@evleaks) that unearthed some possible specifications surrounding the next P-series. With the aforementioned system files suggesting an upcoming device with a notch, XDA-Developers proposed that it most likely applies to this flagship. The new device - which could be called the P11 - will supposedly be announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February next year. It is also rumored to sport the latest Kirin 970 processor from the company, and should ship with Android 8.0 Oreo.
Source and Image: XDA Developers