Some Chinese smartphones makers like Ulefone have already signaled their intent at launching an iPhone X clone complete with the controversial notch. But it seems that copying the design of Apple’s latest and greatest flagship is not only reserved for China’s more obscure brands.
According to a report coming out of the xda-developers, Huawei – who overtook Apple as the world’s second-largest smartphone maker in September 2017 – is working on a flagship that will come with a distinct iPhone X-esque notch.
The publication found evidence in official Huawei firmware that one of the company’s upcoming flagships, quite a possibility the P11 will come with a notch. The biggest clue is an overlay image (re-created below) referenced in a configuration file that defines the “RoundCornerDisplay”. A second configuration file is even more specific and directly references one of the systems build properties as a “notch”.
Another hint that the phone will come with a notch similar to the one found on the iPhone X and mind you, the Essential Phone, is found in a boot animation. While the alleged P11 has a 6.01-inch display with 2160 x 1080 resolution, the boot animation reveals the phone actually uses 2244 x 1080 resolution. This discrepancy can be explained by the presence on the notch.
Furthermore, we’re told the phone is apparently called EMILY and will come with Android 8.0.1 Oreo out of the box.
Huawei unveiled the P10 and P10 Plus during the MWC 2017 tradeshow in Barcelona, so we expect the company to unveil the P11 and probably the P11 Plus during the same event next year. So we should be able to learn more details about the company’s upcoming top-tier phone in the upcoming weeks.
