Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. Guides

How annoying is the camera notch while using the iPhone X?

By
One major feature of the iPhone X is how it can unlock the screen with just your face — also known as Face ID. It’s the new replacement for Touch ID, because there’s no longer a home button. Instead of chunky edges around the screen, you’ll have to settle for a “notch” at the top, where the front-facing camera and the sensors for Face ID sit.
Recommended Videos

But people have already expressed dissatisfaction with the notch on the iPhone X, and some don’t like it at all. In our day-to-day use, we generally liked the look of the operating system flanking the notch, but we did find it broke immersion when watching YouTube videos or movies on Netflix. It can be distracting.

Related

iPhone X notch design

iOS splits the top status bar in two with information on both sides. On the right of the notch, we’ll call it a “shoulder,” you’ll see the battery, Wi-Fi, and cellular status. On the left shoulder is the clock. When the device is locked, the clock is placed in the middle of the screen and the left shoulder shows your carrier instead. The right shoulder is also where you swipe down to access the Control Center.

Apps need to support the iPhone X screen

Some social media apps already have added support for the iPhone X. When you open apps such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, the interface blends in nicely with the notch. It will look the same as it does when you’re on the home screen or lock screen of your device, with all of the same information on its respective sides of the notch.

YouTube is another app that has already been updated to work with the iPhone X. The pinch the screen and the video will take over the full display, giving you an immersive experience. Doing this means you’re slightly cropping the video to fit the iPhone X screen, and that may mean cutting off the top of the video. With Netflix, you’ll need to double tap the screen to go into this immersive mode.

But there are still a large amount of apps that do not support the full display. These will easily stand out, because you’ll see large black bars on the top and bottom of the screen — making your iPhone X look like an iPhone 8. You won’t have trouble with Apple’s apps, but even Google has yet to add support for most of its apps. Slack, Trello, even Snapchat are just a few of the apps we saw that have yet to add support for the full display.

Apple told Digital Trends more and more apps are starting to submit updates adding support for the iPhone X, and we’ll likely see most apps adopting the full screen in the coming weeks.

For more about Apple’s latest flagship device, be sure to check out our iPhone X review.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Brenda Stolyar
Brenda Stolyar
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brenda became obsessed with technology after receiving her first Dell computer from her grandpa in the second grade. While…
Samsung is catching up to the iPhone in an unexpected way
A person holding a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and an Apple iPhone 15 Pro.

It's a well-known fact that Apple products retain value for much longer than non-Apple products. Or is it? According to recent data from SellCell, things might be changing.

According to its report, SellCell says that iPhones still hold their value better than the competition, but they depreciate faster with every new release. At the same time, Samsung's flagship models have begun to last a little longer. In fact — and get ready for a lot of numbers — the iPhone has seen almost a 5% drop in value year-over-year since the iPhone 12 was released — and the iPhone 16 is losing value 8% faster than the iPhone 15 and has lost an average of 41.2% of its value in the first two weeks since release. That's a much greater loss than the iPhone 14 and 15 models, at 33% and 33.2%, respectively.

Read more
A microscopic change may give the iPhone 18 huge performance gains
iPhone 16 Pro Max in Desert Titanium.

Apple is poised to make a significant change with the iPhone 18 when the series arrives in 2026. A reliable source on Weibo suggests that the tech giant will leverage TSMC's cutting-edge 2-nanometer fabrication process for the A20 chip powering these devices. This advancement promises a significant boost in performance and efficiency.

Furthermore, the iPhone 18 series is rumored to be the first to feature 12GB of RAM across the board, which would be a substantial upgrade from the current 8GB RAM in the iPhone 16 lineup. This increase in memory capacity will enable smoother multitasking and enhanced performance for demanding applications.

Read more
The next iPhone SE may be missing a key iPhone 16 feature
iPhone SE

It seems like more information about the iPhone SE 4 is released every week, and that's saying something when we already know quite a bit about this gadget. An image of an iPhone SE 4 case has hit the web, courtesy of known leaker Sonny Dickson, and it matches what we've come to expect with one big difference: there's no cutout for the Action button.

We know the iPhone SE 4 will likely resemble the iPhone 14, but some rumors have mentioned an Action button similar to what the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 offer. If you take a look at the image below, you'll see the cutout where the Action button should usually go. It looks more like it's designed for a silent/mute toggle switch.

Read more