Week 12 in review: More announcements than MWC

Week 12 was a busy one with new hardware being thrown at us from all directions. Granted, there was not a lot of high-end action going on, but in sheer numbers the past seven days were probably the busiest of the year so far.

HTC had a couple of Desire handsets for us, Meizu brought the E3, while vivo had two announcements of its own. Big players LG and Samsung also took part, while Oppo delivered the only two flagship devices we saw - the R15 pair.

We also saw the final hype buildup before the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s and Hauwei P20 trio announcements next week. The two events are happening on Tuesday, March 27, but with so many leaks we can't help but wonder if there are any surprises left.

Check out the full list of our most popular articles to make sure you haven't missed anything.

HTC Desire 12 and Desire 12+ debut with tall screens, attractive prices

The Desire 12 duo brings 18:9 displays to HTC's midrange.

Meizu E3 goes official with dual camera, amazing price

Meizu E3 is now official with 6" screen, Snapdragon 636 chip, and dual-camera on the back.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s official teasers reveals no selfie camera on top

The images debunk the rumors for a snapper in the upper right corner.

vivo X21 announced, under-display fingerprint version in tow

vivo announced its X21 flagship today with a notched tall screen, Snapdragon 660 chip, dual-camera.

OnePlus 6 specs sheet leaks

The phone with model number A6000 will arrive with notched display and Snapdragon 845.

Full Oppo F7 specs leak via sales pitch notes

A leaked Oppo F7 sales pitch doc spills the beans on the final specs.

OnePlus 6 256GB price revealed, no major increase in sight

A leaked image reveals the price of a OnePlus 6 with 256GB storage.

Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror Edition go official with notched screens, new cameras

Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror Edition are now official, launch on April 1.

Huawei P20 Pro to have a 40MP sensor, plus 5x "hybrid zoom"

The Leica camera sounds like a spiritual successor to the PureView cameras.

Huawei P20 to cost €679, P20 Pro to be €899 in Europe, latest leak reveals

The P20 will arrive with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage, while the P20 Pro will have 6GB/128GB.

WhatsApp co-founder wants you to delete your Facebook account

Brian Acton sold his company to Facebook 4 years ago.

MIUI 9.5 to hit over 30 Xiaomi smartphones

The Global Stable ROM will begin its rollout in Late March, but some devices will get the new UI in Mid April.

Huawei P20 Lite goes official in China as nova 3e

A tall notched screen, Kirin 659 chip and dual-camera on the back.

Nubia V18 is now official, 4000 mAh battery in tow

Nubia V18 was unveiled with a 6" screen and Snapdragon 625.

No, this isn't the LG G7 in Lime Green

A render allegedly found on an LG computer at MWC 2018 is doing the rounds, but it's merely a photoshopped LG G5.

Digitimes: iPhone X successor to be the cheapest model, 6.45" OLED iPhone on top

Apple allegedly reduced the bill of materials by 10% compared to the iPhone X, allowing it to use a pricey OLED screen on the cheaper model.

Samsung Galaxy S9+ costs $379 to build

It is the most expensive Samsung smartphone and just $10 shy of the iPhone X.

vivo V9 has notched screen and a 24MP AI selfie camera

The phone pushes the bezels to the brink.

Older Android apps may stop working after Android P

Android P may drop support for apps made for Jelly Bean or earlier.

First hands-on photos of Moto E5 Plus emerge

Sadly the poor quality stills aren't very informative.

Latest Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s teaser video is a Pacific Rim crossover

Building a jaeger will look great on your resume when you apply to be on the Mix design team.

Mark Zuckerberg releases statement in light of ongoing data scandal

This is the first time that Zuckerberg has spoken about the recent revelations surrounding Facebook’s involvement with misuse of user data in the influence of the US 2016 elections.

vivo V9 to arrive on March 22, hits India on the next day

The phone will have FullView Display and new AI algorithms for camera performance.

Xiaomi releases two video teasers for the Mi Mix 2S

Both tease the phone’s two major “AI” capabilities: face unlock and photo scene recognition.

Huawei P20 Pro stops by Geekbench

The phone has 6 GB RAM and reaches 1921 for a single-core score and 6729 for a multi-core score.

Huawei P20 Lite goes official, this time for real

For the second time today, third time overall. Bear with us.

Samsung silently releases updated Galaxy J7 Prime 2

The phone comes with Android Nougat, Exynos 7-series chipset, and 13 MP selfie camera.

LG K9 debuts, is just a rebranded K8 (2018) for Russia

The LG K9 forms the LG entry level.

The notch is spreading for no good reason: the MWC was rife with iPhone X lookalikes

Smartphone makers are like school kids - they see the popular guy wear a weird hat and rush off to the store to buy weird hats too. It's easier than developing their own style. Apple has been just such a trend-setter in Smartphone High and after successfully undermining the headphone jack, it's now responsible for an explosion of notches.

But screen notches didn't originate with Apple - time for a detour to History class. As former Motorola designer pointed out on Twitter, the MOTOFONE F3 had a notch way back in 2006. This one barely had an UI, though, so the notch didn't get in the way. The Motorola WILDER had an extra screen - no notch here, there was plenty of room on the bezels. But later a similar arrangement was used by the LG V10 and V20, which had thinner bezels so the main and secondary screens came together - you can think of this as an off-center notch.

   
Motorola MOTOFONE F3 • Motorola WILDER • LG V10

However, Apple's iPhone X stands apart from these because they all treated that extra bit of screen as a separate screen. The X tries to flow the app's UI around the notch and just leaves padding when it can't. It's a clunky solution, but marketing demanded thin bezels. And now we hear that Google is considering adding software support for notches to Android P, so notches may be here to stay.

We don't necessarily like them, but some are better executed than others. And the MWC grounds had plenty of examples of notched screens so we sought the best and worst examples.

Asus adopted the notch for the Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 5z. The company boasts that its notch is smaller than Apple's (mocking the iPhone X while copying it). However, it's not the smallest notch as we'll see in a minute. Looking at that bottom bezel, this seems more like a notch for the sake of fashion rather than necessity.

      
Asus Zenfone 5 and 5z

There's some history of imitators beating the original - e.g. Hydrox was the original Oreo biscuit yet nobody has heard of them. Still, we don't think that Asus will be the Oreo biscuit of phones. We do hope that these companies realize that Apple's success came before the notch, not because of it. Designing a phone with part of the screen cut out won't suddenly boost it to iPhone levels of success. Plus, analysts make out the iPhone X to be something of a disappointment.

That said, some managed to impress. The Ulefone T2 Pro is one of the few phones to live up to the "bezel-less" marketing talk. Just look at it, the border is so thin that a pixel might fall of the edge of the screen! Hyperbole aside, Ulefone achieved a cool, futuristic look and for that we don't mind the notch at all.

      
Ulefone T2 Pro

Its sibling, the Ulefone X, is less impressive in that respect. There's a fairly thick border running around the screen, comparable with the iPhone X, and with the thick bottom bezel, it makes you wonder if a notch was really necessary. How can hardware novelty and a needless clone live under the same roof?

   
Ulefone X

Let's change gears and look at the Wiko View2 and View2 Pro. The notch goes deeper into the screen and holds a prominent selfie camera. The design is very similar to the Essential phone. We like that the status bar has more room for notification icons, iPhone X-style displays run out of room just by showing the time and signal strength.

We like the Wikos for another reason. Sure, they look like Andy Rubin's Essential phone, but few others do. So this gives the View2's front a unique appearance, something that can rarely be said these days. For a bit of personality, we might live with a notch.

      
Wiko View2 and View2 Pro

Then we get to a bunch of "me too" devices. Look at this Leagoo S9, for example. Sure, it costs just $150, but the software hasn't been prepared for the notch at all, not even the rounded corners - look at how it cuts off part of the icons in the status bar.

The Noa N10 is hardly any better in this respect.

   
Noa N10

The Oukitel U18 does it too to an extent, though at least it has the good sense to spread out the icons on both sides of the notch, alleviating the problem a bit.

      
Oukitel U18 and U19

We're quite impressed by the Ulefone T2 Pro - it looks like you're holding an image without its frame. It may not be terribly practical for daily use from an ergonomic standpoint, but it sure looks so cool.

And we kind of dig the camera notch used by the Essential phone and the Wiko, just because they break up the monotony of the rectangular screen. Even the recent trend of rounded corners doesn't break away from the tedium of modern smartphones - a featureless front that can be mistaken for any other phone.

The vivo APEX showed it's possible to eliminate the top bezel entirely without having a notch at all. However, it had to put the speaker below the glass like the original Xiaomi Mi Mix. We didn't like the audio quality and it's so loud that everyone can hear your conversation. So, moving the earpiece is impractical. But the APEX did demonstrate that keeping the selfie camera without having a notch is doable (another way to do it is like the Honor 7i).

   
vivo APEX

While touring notched phones at the MWC, we started to reconsider Google's position in the Android world. We always thought of it as "Google's Android" but "Samsung's TouchWiz" (now Grace) or "HTC's Sense". Now, though, Google seems more like a curator of Android features rather than a leader and innovator.

That was always the case, we suppose. It took Xiaomi nearly a year to get Google to officially support taller than 16:9 screens and now the Pixel 2 XL uses one. And it has no audio jack. The notification area didn't have quick toggles until makers put them there. And split screen was pushed by makers long before Google adopted it officially (it took so long that Apple beat them to the punch).

Does Google really believe in screen notches? As in "Pixel 3 will have a notch" believe in them? Or is the company going with the flow, unable to redirect the flow of river Android? It's starting to feel like brands - even low volume ones - have more say in what next year's Androids will look like than Google does. With Apple you're never in doubt who's in charge, even when the team at Cupertino borrows features from others.