Huawei has officially announced the Nova 4 — one of the first in a wave of notch-less phones expected to debut in 2019.
In contrast with the wide “eyebrow” notch originated on the Essential Phone and popularized by Apple’s iPhone X, the Nova 4’s front-facing camera sits in a small, circular cutout in the upper-lefthand corner of the display. The O-shaped hole is nearly invisible when the phone is off or the display is showing a black image.
Huawei has long been experimenting with alternatives to the traditional notch; the P20, introduced in March, lets you turn off the notch in the phone’s settings. And the company has another phone with a hole punch design in the works — the Honor View 20, which is scheduled to debut in China on Dec. 26 and globally on Jan. 22, 2019.
Note that Samsung is also developing a hole-punch design, which it calls the Infinity-O display, for its next generation of phones including the forthcoming Galaxy S10. Lenovo may use a similar O-shaped cutout on its rumored Z5S.
For now, the Nova 4 is on sale exclusively in Asia, but the company plans to unveil it in the US in January at CES 2019.
Here’s a rundown of the Nova 4’s features and specs:
- 6.4-inch display (2,310×1,080-pixel resolution)
- Screen-body ratio of 91.8 percent
- 48-megapixel rear camera, 25-megapixel front-facing camera
- Kirin 770 processor
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB storage
- Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor
- 18W fast charging over USB-C
- 3,750mAh battery
- Four colors: red, black, white and blue
- Price: 3,339 yuan ($490, £385 or AU$675)
