There's been a lot of buzz lately about the iPhone 14 and its potential punch-hole. Apple would like to get rid of the already known notch and replace it with a camera hole or a pill-shaped oval. This is also known as the punch hole. You can wonder which of the two options is the best, but actually that doesn't matter to me at all. The profit you get with it is probably minimal.
Notch or punch-hole makes little difference
Let's be honest: when was the last time you were really bothered by the notch at the top of the iPhone screen? We've had the familiar notch at the top of the iPhone screen since 2017, but I can hardly remember situations where I found it really disturbing. It may not always be beautiful, but it never really gets in the way. You hardly notice that the iPhone 13 has been given a smaller notch. Nothing is done with the extra screen space next to it. Why would that be any different with a small hole for the front camera or with a pill-shaped punch-hole? In our quick draft, you can see that in terms of screen space for your app, it hardly makes any difference.
A simple concept to give a small impression.
Whether the notch is large, small, round or pill-shaped, in all cases it takes up space that you can only really use if there is no notch or punch-hole at all. Admittedly: Apple can use the space next to a punch hole (whether it is round or pill-shaped) to show the battery percentage, for example. That would be the only thing I would possibly like in the status bar. All sorts of other status icons are just a distraction and, as far as I'm concerned, are superfluous. I certainly don't need the provider name, as we had it for years on iPhones with a home button.
To return to the earlier concept: only when the notch or punch-hole disappears completely in whatever shape, we really benefit from it. In that case, the word ‘Settings’ for example, stand a lot higher, so that everything slides up. More can then be shown on the screen. iOS now takes care of that space around and ‘behind’ the notch must always be free, so that the content of apps is always a bit lower. You can't just solve this with a camera hole or pill-shaped punch-hole. That space still needs to be released.
Image via Jeff Grossman
Notch not disruptive on videos
Even when watching videos in landscape view, we never really suffer from the notch. Videos usually don't play full screen by default. Apple does this to prevent part of the image from being blocked by the notch. If you want to watch full screen, a very small part of the image is blocked on the side. But here too, a camera hole or a pill-shaped punch-hole will not solve this in one fell swoop. Here too, something of the image is always blocked.
The future: no notch or punch-hole at all
As far as I'm concerned, Apple will just keep the notch as it is now . Until the moment comes when a notch or punch-hole in any shape or form is no longer necessary. Only then can Apple fully utilize the screen, without having to take any notch into account. I look forward to the moment when this is technically possible, but until then a notch, punch-hole or whatever hole at the top of the screen makes no difference to me at all.