Google Pixel 3 XL – Notch Issues?

While we work away on our Google Pixel 3 XL review, we wanted to quickly touch base on the notch controversy. In case you are not familiar, many people are questioning the size of the notch on the Google Pixel 3 XL; by notch, they are talking about the area on the top of the phone screen ‘notched’ out to accommodate some internal features, most notably here the dual selfie cameras and the large, front facing stereo speaker.

Most XL sized phones have notches on the top, but Google’s is definitely the biggest one. Many are questing the size of this notch on the Pixel 3 XL, and saying it greatly interferes with the use of hte device. This is true, and false, all at the same time, and hopefully we can talk about it accurately here.

What is under the control of Google is how notifications are displayed on the top screen; because of the notch, the number of icons at the top of the screen is limited to two, so if you have a Facebook Messenger notification, and email notification, perhaps a game or two has pushed a notification to you, and let’s say you are using Twitter as well, you will only see two of these notifications displayed while the others are limited to a drop down menu  – noted by a downward facing arrow. That is a pretty big issue for myself, and a big reason why I would recommend the regular sized Google Pixel 3 over the XL version. Outside of this issue, however, the notch becomes a big non-problem for me.

I found the notch issues might come down to specific developers and how they optimize their software. For example, when playing Disney Magic Kingdoms from Gameloft, the game is scaled down to fit in the area from below the notch, to the bottom of the screen. Nothing is cut off because of the notch. I think this is a conscious development decision by Gameloft to not utilize as much of the screen on all XL sized phone, but also limits cutoff because of various sized notches.

In an other example, we look at Fishdom from ___, which does utilize the fill screen, and therefore key information for hte game is cut off on the size because of the notch. I wouldn’t fault Google for this decision, but rather the application developers. So often, I see people online complaining about how the notch interferes with their app usage, but is it Google’s fault others are not taking into consideration this issue? After all, all XL phones utilizing the full screen will have a notch to some degree. Google’s is bigger – and for good reason in my opinion – but it’s not the only company doing this.

The notch is largely a none issue unless you really use those notification icons at the top of the screen. If you do, that doesn’t mean you need to lose all the great camera features of the Google Pixel 3 XL; instead, pick of the standard Google Pixel 3. It’s still a fantastic experience!