Essential is working on getting rid of the notch

Essential Phone had the notch before the iPhone X was even out — and a far smaller one, too. However, unlike some other Android phone makers, which are adding a notch to their phone just to make them more similar to the iPhone, Essential is already trying to get rid of it completely. 

This is according to an interesting patent originally filed by Essential in February 2017 and dug up by TechCrunch. In it, Essential describes a system that places the camera lens below the screen. 

The idea is simple. Since the LCD screen could be made out of elements that are mostly transparent, one could place the camera below a "substantially transparent" part of the screen and have the phone disable that part of the screen when a photo is being taken.  Read more...