If there's one thing Android manufacturers deserve a lot of credit for, it's trying weird ideas that may or may not have any chance of actually succeeding in the real world. ZTE is tackling the problem of a display notch in the weirdest way yet, and even though I don't think it'll catch on, it's interesting to see.
The ZTE Axon V and Axon S both feature cameras on the side of the phones, instead of inside of the screen area. The Axon V, which you can see above, literally has an extra section sticking off the side of the device to house front-facing cameras.
This allows for a phone to have a completely edge-to-edge (sort of) screen, at the cost of dealing with a small plastic tumor on the side of the phone. Case compatibility is also probably going to be almost zero.
The Axon S still has cameras on the side, but instead of taking the Axon V approach it uses an older-style sliding mechanism to hide the cameras.
That slide houses the front cameras, plus three rear cameras and an LED flash. It's a little more extreme than the selfie pop-up cameras that we've been seeing, although I don't really know if it's better or worse.
These likely won't be popular phones and almost certainly won't see a global release, but who knows. Maybe ZTE cracked the code and this form factor will start to catch on.
source: Android Central
Now if they would just make sure that when you shoot video it’s in proper landscape format so idiots who don’t get it can actually shoot decent video with out the annoying side blackouts that display whenever you view them on any other screen other than the phone they shot it on.
What’s the opposite of a notch? Not sure what I think about the bump on the side… But I have to give them credit for trying something different