Do smartphone buyers actually care about camera notches in 2025?

Summary

Camera notches used to be a major controversy with smartphones, but no more.
Notches have shrunk over time, and software has adapted to them.
Small or invisible notches mostly seem to be about fashion now, so there are better things phone makers should be chasing.

Once upon a time, the front camera notches on smartphones were a major controversy, somehow. When the iPhone X was released in 2017, a number of people immediately complained about the camera cutout, which formed a large black bar at the top of its OLED panel. It was unlike anything previously seen on a smartphone, and to some people, it felt like a step backwards in screen use for the sake of adding Face ID.

Flash forward to 2025, and the latest rumors (via Macrumors) point to next year’s iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max getting an under-display Face ID camera, which might reduce the notch to pinhole size — that’s all that would be needed for selfies and FaceTime calls. But does that even matter in 2025? Arguably, there are better things Apple (and other phone makers) could be investing their time and resources towards. I’ll explain myself.

Apple should put Face ID on all its devices

It’s not as crazy as it might initially seem.

The evolution of the notch

Life finds a way

The Dynamic Island on an iPhone 15 Plus.

I can’t even remember the last time I heard someone complain about camera notches. It’s pretty obvious why, I’d say — smartphone development has evolved to minimize the downsides.

It was inevitable that Apple would figure out a way to shrink camera notches, thanks to camera miniaturization and other technological improvements. The iPhone 13’s notch was about 20% smaller than the one on the iPhone 12, and the iPhone 14 Pro transformed it into an even smaller pill-shaped cutout. The pill design has been de facto across new iPhones since 2023’s iPhone 15, in some ways making it a status symbol — it marks an iPhone as a recent purchase.

Android phone makers have been ahead of Apple in shrinking notches for a while.

More importantly, Apple has adapted its software to work around camera notches, and even exploit them. Specifically, I’m thinking of the Dynamic Island, which not only camouflages the pill, but uses it as a mini-window for multitasking and live status updates. It’s such a convenient feature that I’d want it with or without any cameras to hide — I use it all the time to control timers, music, and podcasts. I’m betting it’ll remain in iOS through the iPhone 18 Pro and beyond.

The iPhone Air could finally hit your pocket later this year

Apple reportedly has a lot of new product launching this year, including a new Apple Watch SE and the iPhone 17 Air.

The feature is popular enough that we’re getting copycats in the Android world. OnePlus phones now include a feature called Live Alerts, which are the Dynamic Island in all but name — in fact, if you search for the term “island” in the OnePlus 13‘s Settings app, Live Alerts pop up. Another Chinese brand, Realme, was so quick to copy Apple that it had a cloned feature out by March 2023 — less than six months after the iPhone 14 Pro debuted.

Not that there was that much pressure, since Android phone makers have long been ahead of Apple in shrinking notches. By the time the iPhone X premiered, Essential had already released a phone with a minimal “waterdrop” cutout. Many newer Android products, such as the Google Pixel 9, use cutouts barely large enough for their lenses. A number have already attempted under-display technology, too, if usually with weak photo quality. Presumably, that’s why Apple is limiting its own under-display tech to Face ID — all that needs to do is create a depth map of your face, not shoot high-resolution selfies. It doesn’t even depend on the visible light spectrum.

Samsung’s smartphone copycat game makes sense, but it’s time to stop

Trying to stay in vogue will only work for so long.

A good idea, not an important one

Fashion versus function

Apple should continue pursuing smaller or invisible camera notches as a long-term goal, certainly. As great as the Dynamic Island is, it would be even better with more design space. And hey — it’d be nice to watch fullscreen YouTube videos without a black mark obscuring them.

I get the sense that phone makers are primarily motivated by fashion.

As I mentioned, though, there are more important goals companies could be working towards, such as mutli-day battery life. Even that video issue is largely irrelevant, since most iPhones now have screens over six inches, and many videos avoid the notch when viewed in their intended aspect ratios. Remember the wise words of David Lynch — you shouldn’t be watching a movie on your iPhone, at least if you’ve got a choice in the matter.

The iPhone’s foldable future: 4 things Apple needs to get right

There’s a high bar if Apple’s going to be late to the foldable party.

I get the sense that phone makers are primarily motivated by fashion. A minimal or non-existent camera notch looks slick, even if you haven’t been paying attention to industry developments, and no company wants to be seen as behind the curve. Indeed, I’ll bet the only reason Apple’s progress has been slow is that it likes to do things on its own terms and one-up the competition.

There’s no immediate rush, given that many of its customers are locked into the iPhone ecosystem anyway.

I’ll see if Apple can deliver a notch worth writing about. Many of its recent products have been very conservative — it has yet to ship a single foldable, for example, nearly six years after Samsung unveiled the first Galaxy Fold. By the time 2026 rolls around, even a pinhole cutout might not be worth the brag. We’re already beginning to see tri-fold smartphones, and even rollable ones are on the horizon. I wonder if Apple is banking too much of its future on mixed reality products, like the Vision Pro and its upcoming low-cost successor — I digress.