Do Front Cameras Reduce Notification Icon Space? - Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Questions & Answers

I'm considering picking one of these up (refurb) and I've never had a phone with notch or with cameras in the screen area. Front camera has been in the bezel area right above the screen. It looks like the two front cameras on this device are essentially embedded into the screen. Does that mean there is less display areas for notification icons or does the device allow for two rows of notification icons + time/battery display up top?

jazee said:
I'm considering picking one of these up (refurb) and I've never had a phone with notch or with cameras in the screen area. Front camera has been in the bezel area right above the screen. It looks like the two front cameras on this device are essentially embedded into the screen. Does that mean there is less display areas for notification icons or does the device allow for two rows of notification icons + time/battery display up top?
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It may seen that it would be e problem, i've owned mine for about 4 months bow and its not an issue. The notification bar is thin but still very readable. If you want to customize the notification panel further for space, you'll be able to download (GoodLock and NiceLock depending on your region) to help with that.

S105G said:
It may seen that it would be e problem, i've owned mine for about 4 months bow and its not an issue. The notification bar is thin but still very readable. If you want to customize the notification panel further for space, you'll be able to download (GoodLock and NiceLock depending on your region) to help with that.
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I took a peak at the descriptions of those apps and screen shots and can GoodLock actually modify the top notification status bar on top? I didn't think any app could control the look of that? Those apps seems to have quite a bit of overlap with built-in functions of latest Android 10 + One UI 2.x ? Still might give them a whirl.
SO I've had my S10 5G for about a week now. Right away, I tried the virtual bezel setting that basically black out the top of the screen next to the cameras. I didn't like the look. On my LG V30 the camera was in the bezel and the bezel was very thin so the screen display still appeared to take up most of the glass. With this setting on the Samsung, it's too heavy handed, blacks out a little too much height off the top of the screen so it looks odd with a very tall black bezel on top.
So far, I don't think the reduced space has caused my notification icon bar up top to get overloaded. What I ended up doing though was selecting a wallpaper that the top right corner is dark or almost black. It effectively "hides the cameras" while utilizing the full screen. Of course with apps open that aren't black on top, you see the large camera cutout but it's not really that distracting/terrible looking.
I like that Samsung got a little smarter on the S20 and has a very small single camera cutout in the middle of the screen now. Looks MUCH better. But still, it's only looks. Some may prefer having the dual front cameras, which I think is a nice trade off to having the larger camera cutout on the side instead of the a small single camera in the middle.

Related

[Q] Faulty screen?

I have a question about the screen on the SGS, i just got one and when i look closely on the screen I see small dots. Kind of like a chessboard feeling, I noted it first when I looked closely at the "Application" ikon in the bottom right corner. The four white fields look almost like small chessboards except that the "black" squares are more grayish and not black as in a real chessboard .
I'm wondering if my screen is somehow faulty or if it is supposed to look like that?
Jac_83 said:
I have a question about the screen on the SGS, i just got one and when i look closely on the screen I see small dots. Kind of like a chessboard feeling, I noted it first when I looked closely at the "Application" ikon in the bottom right corner. The four white fields look almost like small chessboards except that the "black" squares are more grayish and not black as in a real chessboard .
I'm wondering if my screen is somehow faulty or if it is supposed to look like that?
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Try to do a screen test. Type in the phone (*#0*#)
okey, what am I looking for in the screentest, I have done that before, as I recall there are just at series of color test, the pattern im speaking of is on the whole screen, almost as if it was low resolution or something, I saw some information on a thread about this, but I cant find it anymore.
Bring it to a service center/phone shop, compare it to whatever display models they have? If you see a difference, you can turn it in on the spot
Jac_83 said:
okey, what am I looking for in the screentest, I have done that before, as I recall there are just at series of color test, the pattern im speaking of is on the whole screen, almost as if it was low resolution or something, I saw some information on a thread about this, but I cant find it anymore.
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Can you do a pic of it?...
Jac_83 said:
I have a question about the screen on the SGS, i just got one and when i look closely on the screen I see small dots. Kind of like a chessboard feeling, I noted it first when I looked closely at the "Application" ikon in the bottom right corner. The four white fields look almost like small chessboards except that the "black" squares are more grayish and not black as in a real chessboard .
I'm wondering if my screen is somehow faulty or if it is supposed to look like that?
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That's called the pentile effect. Just google pentile. Its how it is there is nothing you can be about it, although from a normal distace you can't see it. Its most visible on gray i think.
bcam117 said:
That's called the pentile effect. Just google pentile. Its how it is there is nothing you can be about it, although from a normal distace you can't see it. Its most visible on gray i think.
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Listen to this guy.
Samsung used a pentile matrix (one pixel now consists of 5 sub pixels - 2 small red, 2 small green and 1 large blue) for some strange reason. I'm only taking a guess here but I figure it has something to do with the way OLED screens degrade. Blue degrades the fastest so I guess it makes sense to have it the largest as it will then have more "say" in the colors that are made. This is the same reason people complain that their screen is blue when it's supposed to be white. It is this same layout that makes the grid pattern and text harder to read than retina displays.
Thank you for the information, I was worried that i had some "resolution" issue. And true enough at normal distance it's no issue. I only noticed it while comparing some stuff to a friends iPhone4.
I have a buddy with a SGS, gonna compare to his "just in case".
I've heard people talk about dithering so I thought I might as well ask, for example while starting the samsung app the blueish background image is indeed dithered on my device, is that normal? Also when playing a video (stock player) the menu where you can scroll consist of lines of gray instead of being smoothly gradient.
i have this gradient issue either. there are steps in color gradient, is this normal??
for example when u look at the grey parts of the battery when ure charging the phone while it's off. or the samsung apps loading screen. and many more...

Possible fix for poor screen uniformity (pink/yellow tint)

I only say possible, as it doesn't work completely with the note 4.
Basically, someone who goes by 'aaah' on the OnePlus forums made an excellent app that let's you add a gradient anywhere on the screen that can even out any tinting etc. It worked very well, but obviously doesn't make up for the loss of brightness as OPO uses LCD screens
With our note 4s however, there is no brightness shift, so we can compensate with a different colour where it changes.
Unfortunately the app, at least on my exynos note 4, doesn't allow you to properly change transparency when a gradient is applied. It works fine for a solid block, but that isn't ideal as the pink patches aren't solid but instead fade gradually. Hence why a gradient would be great for it.
If any android wiz kids out there could possibly patch the apk so that the transparency settings work then it would certainly help lessen the degree at which the colour shifts are noticeable.
For mine, its mainly the bottom right where the pink patch is more prominent. So I will always have a left to right shift around the keyboard area no matter what, but it would at least reduce the top to bottom shift.
Original link to the screen filter app: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/screen-filter-rewritten-yellow-band-software-fix.141167/

Thoughts on keyboard position on all-screen phones

After a week of using the 6T, I noticed that my typing wasn't as accurate as it was on my Moto Z Play. My thumbs also were a little uncomfortable when typing for a while. I realized that because of the screen extending further down the screen on the 6T vs the MZP, I had to move my thumbs much more down the phone than before. After playing around with the floating function of the Google Keyboard, I found a position that is more comfortable (image attached), and my accuracy has improved as well. The keys are now in a more natural position, lining up right next to where my thumbs fall when holding the phone.
The other option is also holding the phone lower, thereby placing thumbs where the keyboard lies on this phone. The downside of that for me is that I have to shift my hands up and down the phone to get my thumbs to the top of the screen. Time will tell which solution I prefer.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone else who is coming from a phone that had a much larger chin than the 6T has had the same challenges. It may be also that I'm just getting old, and my hands are less flexible.
how do you make the gboard float like that? I can't seem to find it in settings.
raing said:
how do you make the gboard float like that? I can't seem to find it in settings.
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Tap the g in the upper left, then the triple dots top right, look in the lower right?
This will be a necessity for me if I ever talk myself into upgrading my MZP to a 6T as well. My stubby, clumsy thumbs will have nothing to do with a keyboard all the way at the bottom of the device.
Actually recently got rid of nav bar for gesture nav on the MZP, and this helps in that scenario too.
I just got my OP6T today and I'm pleasantly surprised by the phone. Maybe the screen is not as sharp as my previous U11 but the difference is quite small so I think I can live with that for now. The secondary thing is like the OP mentioned typing on the keyboard. I tried using the phone with gestures and even though its really easy to navigate around the UI, writing is just horrible. Space bar is so low that I have to hold the phone really low in order to right properly. With standard navigation bar everything is ok. Tried floating keyboard but its so weird to type and look down to see what you are writing.
Also it's so funny that everyone is chasing the 99% front display ratio but at the same time interaction with the phone suffers a lot and we have to find ways to go around obstacles created but those almost full front display phones.
I use Minuum keyboard with adjustable spacebar height independent of the adjustable keyboard height.

disable portion of screen with camera

is it possible to disable the entire horizontal area with the front facing camera on it, so that you don't lose out on a portion of your viewing experience? kind of like the notch / no notch options in other phones
So to avoid losing a very small part of screen? You removen 3 times+ more screen? ? Seems counter intuitive
mrpops2ko said:
is it possible to disable the entire horizontal area with the front facing camera on it, so that you don't lose out on a portion of your viewing experience? kind of like the notch / no notch options in other phones
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Like someone else mentioned I don't see the reasoning behind that, but you could possible use another launcher like Nova and have the permanent status bar across the top.
The justification is that one is more distracting than the other.
I'd rather take the hit and have a smaller screen (lose 0.2 of an inch) than have video gain 0.2 of an inch but be hampered by a pill sized cutout that obscures video. It is a massive distraction. Arguably worse than the notch because at least that was flush at the top.
The question is whether we have the opportunity to control placement in software. If so, is that native support in android or would that have to be a custom feature via different launchers?
mrpops2ko said:
The justification is that one is more distracting than the other.
I'd rather take the hit and have a smaller screen (lose 0.2 of an inch) than have video gain 0.2 of an inch but be hampered by a pill sized cutout that obscures video. It is a massive distraction. Arguably worse than the notch because at least that was flush at the top.
The question is whether we have the opportunity to control placement in software. If so, is that native support in android or would that have to be a custom feature via different launchers?
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I doubt it will be native support and it will require another launcher.
further to this, https://www.sammobile.com/2019/02/22/galaxy-s10-hide-notch-front-camera-cutout
brilliant, we can sleep easy now.
mrpops2ko said:
further to this, https://www.sammobile.com/2019/02/22/galaxy-s10-hide-notch-front-camera-cutout
brilliant, we can sleep easy now.
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LOL, Thanks, good to know. That surprises me since that cutout was a Samsung feature and Samsung isn't big on hiding their features.

The notch

Hey,
This is my first phone with a notch despite all those times I said I would never get a phone with a notch I don't want to miss out top phones for the next years until the fad goes away.
Anyway as I feared the notch is a pain in the arse no matter what the tech press have said for the last few years how they don't interfere blah blah.
Several games I tried have the notch obscuring vital parts of the game exactly where the notch is.
I thought I would try the hide the notch option in settings, stupidly I thought that this would not only hide the notch but adjust the screen size so the app was in the visible area only.
NO.
Using this setting the black bar to hide the notch actually goes over the app and obscures a whole line now instead of just the notch area.
Seriously how do people survive a notch?
Is it poor implementation on Huawei's end?
How can I make this better for myself?
Arguably I'd say that's the fault of the games at this point.
Huawei has/had some API related to notch position and size, but Google integrated an official way to query for these (called Cutouts in the SDK) in Android 9.
I'd expect applications that are aware of 9/aren't old games never to be updated for a while to be notch aware at this point. They could
* test for a notch and not go full screen and scale the game accordingly (leaving the notch 'bar' out - you lose some pixels but nothing is hidden).
* (arguably harder) test for a notch and avoid that area if that's possible for the game UI
> Seriously how do people survive a notch?
Honestly, the P20 Pro notch is a pain in the ass. It's unbearable. It's the worst idea ever.
But the P30 Pro? It's tiny and I never noticed it, neither in normal usage nor for gaming.
First phone with a notch for me too. Have absolutely no problems with it whatsoever. Doesn't bother me at all.
Trying to embrace it and in general is fine but for a couple of games it is in the way.
I could live with the black bar if the screen scaled instead - this should be done by Huawei for sure in the screen management, why give you an option to black bar and hide notch if it hides more of the visible image. It makes no sense when they could scale the image so you see it all.

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