Samsung's next Galaxy flagship smartphone could have a notch in its display for holding sensors, if a patent filing by the South Korean company is anything to go by.
Filed back in May 2016 – way ahead of the Infinity Display found in the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 – the patent has been approved by Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) and published online.
The patent shows a smartphone chassis with a cutout in the top centre part of the display, akin to the one found in the upcoming Essential Phone which is used to house the mobile's front-facing camera, earpiece and other sensors.
Such cutouts are designed to allow for a display to truly cover the entire front of a smartphone, but at the same time not block essential external components. A similar cutout has also been rumoured to crop up with the iPhone 8, which is set to be revealed on September 12.
Credit: KIPRIS
But given the timing of the patent application by Samsung and its subsequent release of the critically acclaimed Galaxy S8 with its impressive HDR curved display, there's a good change that Samsung will abandon the design in the patent and instead concentrate on improving its Infinity Display for the Galaxy S9.
Alternatively, the electronics giant could integrate such a notched display into a new smartphone altogether, adding a third handset to its high-end line up.
If both Samsung and Apple are pursuing similar design ideas with their next-generation smartphones, there's a chance we could see a resurgence of the patent and design wars fought in various courts across the world between the two tech firms.
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