Whether it will ultimately be called Huawei P20 lite or P11 lite, this watered-down version of the Chinese OEM’s next-gen flagship is almost certainly set to sport a « notch. »
Huawei is probably smart to avoid a head-to-head battle with Samsung at the 2018 Mobile World Congress later this month, although that obviously means the Chinese OEM’s next-gen flagship phone will come to market at least several weeks after the Galaxy S9 duo.
What doesn’t seem so smart is emulating Apple’s divisive iPhone X notch implementation for the P11, P11 Plus and P11 lite “picture makers”, seeing as how Huawei managed to pull off some very nice “FullView” designs without resorting to dubious screen cut-out practices.
More likely to be called P20, P20 Plus and P20 lite, the already controversial unreleased handsets from the world’s third-largest vendor have recently started to show up online, revealing the exact way they intend to “copy” the iPhone X.
Well, technically, we’ve only seen a couple of semi-plausible leaked photos of the lower-end Huawei P20 lite, followed by partial design confirmation in FCC diagrams. You can now add a bunch of leaked 3D renders (based on factory CADs) to the equation, making it pretty clear this 5.7-inch or so P11 lite or P20 lite (name TBC) will indeed sport a notch, as well as “only” two rear-facing cameras.
We have no reason to doubt the P20 and P20 Plus (or P11 and P11 Plus) will come with mind-blowing triple-lens Leica rear shooters totaling 40MP, as even the “lite” version appears to feature a noticeably protruding (and thus, likely powerful) main photography arrangement.
As for the notch, it looks tiny, yet it seemingly accommodates a dual front-facing camera setup. The overall bezels are razor-thin, while the placement and especially orientation of the Huawei logo at the back is… quite unusual. Definitely a love-or-hate design all in all.
