Slowly but surely the mobile industry is moving towards true full screen displays where the notch will be no more, the speaker grill nixed and the cutouts for cameras etc non-existent. Display notches are getting smaller with this year being the year of the cutout (for the front-facing camera) but the requirement of an earpiece is still a problem needing to be solved.
We have seen Chinese brands such as Vivo introduce bezel-less phones and also grill-less phones. Instead they have used a conduction technology beneath the glass to produce the earpiece sounds. A new rumour from @OnLeaks suggests that LG is looking to introduce such a technology into their first flagship of 2019, the G8.
According to my sources, #LGG8 will feature Sound on Display (SoD) technology…
— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) January 3, 2019
The new technology called “Sound on Display” uses vibration from under the display and then bone conduction to create the sound within the ear of the user. It does all this without the requirement of an earpiece thereby allowing more room for the display on the front of the phone.
Rumours have also suggested that Samsung are also working on this technology and are apparently going to be showing it off at CES in a Galaxy prototype but are not expected to introduce it to their consumer Galaxy lineup this year.
With CES beginning this week in Las Vegas it would not surprise us to see LG announce or show off this technology there, hoping to be first. It will be interesting how they solve the notch requirement for the front-facing cameras – rumours are suggesting that they will be adopting the teardrop notch for the G8. With their own OLED manufacturing capabilities you would hope that they would have some innovative solution to the notch problem.
Time will tell but one thing for sure, LG need to wow everyone this year after a few lacklustre years for their smartphone division.
But Les, what if you want to video chat with someone – like relatives overseas or whatnot?
Does that mean you have to do it on a small low res screen? Not everyone uses the front facing camera for selfies mate….
The notch is the single silliest feature to arrive on any mobile phone. The simple answer is to put a small low-res screen on the rear to line up selfies. Then get rid of the front camera entirely.
Putting sounds through the screen glass also sounds like a harebrained idea, as the sound would be atrocious.