Flagship Phone Design in 2017: A Study in Compromise

2017 was a landmark year for smartphone design. We saw the rise of "bezel-less" edge-to-edge displays, facial recognition, and other innovative features in flagship devices from Apple, Samsung, LG, and more. However, a closer look reveals that each of these phones‘ cutting-edge designs came with significant compromises.

Let‘s start with the most hyped phone of the year: the iPhone X. Apple‘s 10th anniversary iPhone boasted an impressive edge-to-edge OLED display and advanced facial recognition system called Face ID. But to house the components needed for Face ID, Apple had to carve an unsightly "notch" out of the top of the supposedly seamless display.

The iPhone X‘s design required other compromises too: Apple failed to integrate a fingerprint sensor under the display as rumored, so there was no Touch ID at all. The protruding camera bump remained from prior models. And following the controversial removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7, the iPhone X didn‘t bring it back.

Samsung‘s flagship Galaxy S8 told a similar story. It featured a beautiful curved "Infinity Display" that stretched the screen to the edges on the sides. But the S8 awkwardly placed its fingerprint sensor right next to the rear camera, making it hard to reach and prone to smudging the lens.

Samsung included facial and iris recognition to get around this, but both proved unreliable and insecure, easily fooled by photos. The S8 also had a dedicated hardware button for Samsung‘s digital assistant Bixby, which many considered annoying and redundant with Google Assistant. And those sleek curved screen edges made the phone more fragile.

The LG V30 was another contender for design of the year, but it wasn‘t without flaws either. Its facial recognition could be tricked by a photo unless you used a slower "advanced" mode. The dual rear cameras oddly lacked portrait mode, a feature offered by rivals. And the V30 still had a slight camera bump, albeit less pronounced than the iPhone‘s.

Then there was the Essential Phone from Android co-founder Andy Rubin. While it beat Apple to the edge-to-edge screen with front camera notch design, the Essential‘s camera was panned by reviewers as one of the worst on any 2017 flagship. Like the iPhone, it also omitted the headphone jack.

Even holdouts against the bezel-less trend like HTC‘s U11 had their share of design downsides. The U11‘s slick glass back looked stunning but felt slippery and fragile without a case. Its chunky screen bezels instantly looked dated next to the competition. And yet again, the headphone jack was nowhere to be found.

Special mention goes to Xiaomi‘s Mi Mix 2, an early pioneer of the bezel-less look. It managed to slim the bezels without a notch by moving the front camera to the chin. But this made for awkward angles when snapping selfies or video chatting. The Mi Mix 2 also lacked dual cameras and thus portrait mode, now standard on other flagships. And you guessed it, no headphone jack here either.

So what can we learn from 2017‘s parade of flawed flagships? The key takeaway is that every design decision inevitably involves a compromise or trade-off. Nothing comes for free.

Want a futuristic, fully edge-to-edge display? Get ready for notches, fragile glass, and complicated designs. Slim the bezels to the max? Your front camera might end up in an inconvenient spot. Remove the headphone jack? Better bundle some adapters or dongles in the box.

These sorts of compromises are nothing new, in smartphones or any other product. In the software world, consider how long it took for basic features like copy/paste to arrive on mobile platforms: 3 years after launch for iOS, and only with significant engineering work to rearchitect how text selection worked. Android, meanwhile, took almost a decade to meaningfully restrict background processes and improve battery life, because its open approach made controlling third-party apps difficult.

Good designers understand that every product decision exists in a push-and-pull with its compromises and limitations. You can visualize this as a sort of "negative space" around each feature or design choice, representing what had to be given up to achieve it.

The iPhone X‘s advanced facial recognition carries the negative space of screen notches, the removal of touch ID, and general UI awkwardness. The Galaxy S8‘s slim bezels encapsulate a negative space of poor biometrics, fragility, and extraneous buttons. For the Essential Phone, the negative space of that edge-to-edge screen was one of the worst cameras ever put in a premium phone.

Savvy designers consider not just what to put into a product, but what to intentionally leave out. They carefully weigh the downsides of each decision and steer toward the best overall compromise, not an impossible ideal of a "no-compromise" product.

When evaluating products like flagship phones, consumers too would be wise to look at the full picture of each device, compromises and all, rather than fixating on a simplistic feature checklist. No phone, or any other product, can do everything well. The key is figuring out which limitations you can live with, and which benefits you value most.

This lens of seeing design and compromise as inextricably linked doesn‘t just apply to products, software, or consumer choices. It‘s a valuable framework for approaching decisions and optimizations in any domain.

Chasing an ambitious career opportunity? Be prepared for the high stress and long hours that come as the flip side. Opting for the stability and lifestyle of a work-from-home setup? Know that it will take immense discipline and proactive effort to stay productive and connected. Drawn to a partner with drive and great looks? Understand that their career focus may detract from quality time with you, and attracting lots of attention has its downsides.

Everything has a cost. Every choice has a consequence. The sooner we see decisions through this frame – not just what we gain, but what we necessarily give up in exchange – the sooner we can make truly informed, clear-eyed choices about products, software, careers, relationships, and life in general.

So the next time you marvel at the latest "game-changing" new product, or find yourself agonizing over a tough decision, remember this: The perfect, "no-compromise" option simply doesn‘t exist. All we can do is understand the compromises and limitations of each choice as fully as possible, then pick the one that aligns best with our priorities.

And as for the iPhone X notch? It may not be pretty, but Face ID is a glimpse of the future. I‘ll learn to live with it – at least until under-display cameras and sensors arrive to give us the best of both worlds.