OnePlus was on the receiving end when it blatantly copied the design of the iPhone 7 Plus with respect to the OnePlus 5. However, it wasn’t the only one accused of copying the Apple flagship design. In fact, over the years, many companies, including industry leader Samsung, have been accused of copying the design of the iPhone.
Samsung’s Galaxy S8 has popularized the bezel-less design – a design that even Cupertino has fallen for with respect to the iPhone X, but the latter has its own unique take that is now becoming even more popular.
In an effort to make the iPhone X full-screen, Apple was forced to come up with a “notch” at the top of the screen to accommodate the sensors usually housed by the upper bezel. As it turns out, this design has made the phone more popular, especially in China.
So far, there are a good number of Chinese smartphones that look exactly like the iPhone X. In fact, it’s quite easy to mistake them for the real deal. However, in this article – which will constantly be updated with more phones as we get new details – we’ll list the upcoming Android phones from popular OEMs that are set to feature the iPhone X-like notch – or already have.
Huawei P20 series
The entire Huawei P20 series features an iPhone X-like notch that houses the front-facing camera and earpiece, among other sensors. As if not enough, Huawei P20 series also rocks a similar camera setup on the back, but the P20 Pro gets a third lens, making it the first in the world to feature a tri-lens camera on the back.
Once again, there’s nothing wrong with emulating a ‘cool’ design, but this isn’t what a company aiming to become a leader in the smartphone industry should be doing. Huawei is the third leading smartphone vendor in the world and has constantly stated its desire to beat Apple on its way to becoming the leader in the industry. But with this kind of show, folks in the U.S., where Apple is the supreme, might be glad that the OEM was somehow locked out of the country’s carrier deals.
Still, this is no way to say that the Huawei P20 family looks bad. If anything, by any standards, it’s one of the best-looking family of phones out there.
Check out:
- Huawei P20 and P20 Pro: Everything you should know
- Huawei P20 Lite specs, features, and more
- How to unlock the bootloader of your Huawei P20, P20 Pro or P20 Lite
- How to root Huawei P20, P20 Pro and P20 Lite
- Download Huawei P20 Pro stock wallpapers
Asus ZenFone 5 and 5Z
Similar to Huawei, you also get an iPhone X-like camera arrangement on the back – a dual-lens setup, but the LED flash is below the lenses as opposed to Apple, where the LED flash is between the lenses.
Check out:
- Asus ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 5Z specs, features, and more
- The hottest Asus phones to buy right now
- Download Asus ZenFone 5Z stock wallpapers
Huawei Honor 10
Like the Huawei P20, Honor 10 ships with a notched display screen. The LCD display has a 2.5D glass layer on top, but there’s no mention of Gorilla Glass protection, which is likely to be one of the trade-offs when price matters come into the picture.
Similar to its bigger sibling, the body of the Honor 10 changes appearance depending on the angle of view. Accompanying the Bluish-pink variant that exhibits this nifty design are Black and Teal color variants. The rear panel is made of glass and to join the two pieces together is an aluminum frame, the result of it all being a thin 7.7mm body that weighs 153 grams.
Check out:
- Huawei Honor 10 specs, price, and availability
- Download Honor 10 stock wallpapers
- The best Huawei Honor phones right now
Oppo R15 and R15 Pro
Besides the earpiece, front-facing camera and a few other features such as face unlock, the notch on the Oppo R15 and R15 Pro doesn’t have much to offer. But looking at what you end up paying for either phone in comparison to the iPhone X, there isn’t much to complain about here.
For more about what these two phones really are, check out our post on the 6 things you should know about Oppo R15.
Oppo F7
Oppo’s phones are popular in China, but the company is rapidly spreading its wings to other markets across the globe, more so India. In India, Oppo fans have one more iPhone X-like phone to buy – the Oppo F7. Technically, this is just a slimmed-down Oppo R15. You get the same design featuring a display notch, but the main camera has a single-lens instead of a dual-lens setup like on the R15.
The display, processor, memory, battery capacity, front camera, software and a bunch of other things remain unchanged, but for the few things the phone drops, the price also drops when compared to the standard R15, which may never make it to India.
You can read more about the Oppo F7 here.
Vivo V9
As of this writing, the company has two phones featuring the infamous notch – the Vivo V9 and Vivo X21. The Vivo V9 was announced in March and is already confirmed for the Indian market priced at INR 22,990, but other than the iPhone X-like notch and a massive 6.3-inch full HD+ display screen, the V9 doesn’t have much to show off.
Of course, fans should still enjoy the massive 25MP selfie camera alongside a dual 16MP + 5MP main shooter and the fact that it runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. And yes, the main camera is set up in the same format as the iPhone X.
Want to know more about the Vivo V9? Check out our post on the 5 things to know about the Vivo V9.
Vivo X21 and X21 UD
As noted, Vivo already has two phones with a display notch and the second is the Vivo X21, which has a sibling called Vivo X21 UD – the one with an in-display fingerprint scanner. These two have the same design language that embraces the notch, same specs and software as well as same features, but for the fingerprint scanner’s location.
You get a 6.23-inch full HD+ display screen, a Snapdragon 660 chipset, 6GB RAM, 64/128GB storage, a dual 12MP + 5MP main shooter, a 12MP secondary camera, a 3200mAh battery and Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. One problem with either phone is global availability. So far, the pair is already selling in China and while we’d like to imagine both sets will make it to the rest of the world, it’s hard seeing them cover a majority of the markets.
As you wait for the phone’s availability in your region, you can grab the Vivo X21 stock wallpapers right away and install them on your current phone.
OnePlus 6
OnePlus 6 is the next flagship killer and just like we speculated before, the company has already confirmed and even justified the presence of the notch on the 5T successor. The phone’s full design language is unknown, but if history is to be consulted, we expect something that is nearly identical to the Oppo R15 family.
Besides the notched display, OnePlus 6 will stick to the norms, that is, powerful hardware specs and premium features to match or even better the likes of Samsung Galaxy S9 and Sony Xperia XZ2, among them the new Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage, just to name but a few.
You can read more about OnePlus 6 here.
LG G7 ThinQ
Since it’s a high-end phone, the LG G7 ThinQ has all the bells and whistles you’d imagine to find in such a phone. Talk of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a dual-lens camera, IP68, and all that. To ice the cake is the massive Gorilla Glass 5-protected 6.1-inch notched display screen that boasts a QHD+ resolution (3120 x 1440 pixels) and 19.5:9 aspect ratio, but unfortunately, you still get an LCD panel and not an OLED panel.
Perhaps, this is because LG seems to be pushing the V series as its flagship offering. Check out our full LG G7 ThinQ coverage here.
Leagoo S9
At just $150, this is one of the cheapest you can get an iPhone X mockup. The Leagoo S9 comes from a little-known Chinese OEM and judging by its price tag, there isn’t much on offer here. In essence, the notch is the phone’s selling point, where people can get an iPhone X feel on the budget.
As you may have guessed, the Leagoo S9 also rocks the same dual-lens camera setup as the iPhone X and even though there’s a facial recognition feature housed by the notch, it’s nowhere near Apple’s Face ID. Want to know more about the “world’s first Android notch display smartphone?” Click here.
Oukitel U18
Another no-name Chinese smartphone vendor, Oukitel, has an iPhone X mockup as well. Dubbed Oukitel U18, the phone rocks a notched display, but the camera on the back, although a dual-lens setup, appears in the middle of the phone, much like what you see on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
Interestingly, the official product page of the Oukitel U18 points to a new display screen standard – a 21:9 aspect ratio that gives the 5.85-inch panel an HD+ resolution of 720 x 1512 pixels.
Japan’s Sharp is also getting ready to unveil the successor to the Aquos S2, which emulated the Essential Phone’s notch style. As you may have guessed, it’ll be called the Aquos S3. With the launch drawing closer, the phone has just appeared online, showcasing another iPhone X-like design.
From the leaked images, the Aquos S3 notch doesn’t seem to house a lot. In fact, we can only see the selfie camera and earpiece, which is not strange for a midrange Android phone.
In addition to the notch, the Sharp Aquos S3 also comes with a vertical dual-lens camera on the back located in a similar position as Apple’s, but there’s a fingerprint scanner as well. If reports are to be believed, the S3 will come with a 5.99-inch full HD+ display, Snapdragon 630, 4/6GB RAM, 64/128GB storage, dual 12MP + 13MP rear camera and 16MP selfie camera.
Other iPhone X mockups
As noted, we’ve only highlighted upcoming Android phones from known OEMs, but there will be plenty of no-name Chinese device makers joining the party as well.
In fact, a good number are already on board. Talk of the Noa N10, Hotwonder Hotwav Symbol S3, UMIDIGI Z2, DOOGEE V, Blackview X, Ulefone T2 Pro, and possibly a bunch of others from the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei’s Honor, Oppo and who knows maybe OnePlus 6 might just be another iPhone X look-alike (update: actually it does).
I find it hilarious, all the ANDROID RULES sheep told me how the notch makes my phone “suck”. and now in the Android world notches, some that don’t even do anything, are busting out in designs everywhere, Yet another case of Android doing what they do best.