We’ve reached peak smartphone design, as most phones look the same. They’re all-screen devices with smaller or larger cutouts at the top for the camera and increasingly small bezels. While the display design can’t possibly be improved, we often lament about the back of the devices.
We hate the size of the camera bump, no matter what shape and position it might have. It’s ugly, large, and makes some phones wobble when placed on a flat surface.
The camera bump is a calculated compromise smartphone vendors have made for years. We want better camera capabilities from smartphones, and increasing the size of the cameras, both horizontally and vertically, is the way to do it. The bumps occupy more space on the back of the phone and become thicker as smartphone vendors use larger cameras and more complex lenses.
I’ve often defended the camera compromise, one I’m willing to accept even from ultra-thin devices like the iPhone 17 Air launching this year. But the Pixel 9a is also coming this year, a mid-range Android phone that could turn out to be one of the few phones out there that doesn’t feature a camera bump. Could Gemini AI be the reason why Google is going for such a daring design?
The post The Pixel 9a might fix our biggest gripe with Google’s smartphone design appeared first on BGR.
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The Pixel 9a might fix our biggest gripe with Google’s smartphone design originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 12 Feb 2025 at 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.