The threads in this forum and responses in most of them are truly incredible.
I think it's safe to assume Apple wants to have an iPhone where the whole front is a screen. Problem is, there are several sensors, speaker, camera that need to go somewhere. Right now this is a fact.
For those who dislike the notch, I assume you would have preferred the image on the right - hiding everything using the OLED screen?
I would say that's actually a very cool and clean look. However, Apple has obviously decided against that. There's a few reasons I can think of that lead Apple to go with the layout on the left:
1) They really want as much screen on the front as possible. Covering the whole front as much as possible and squeezing all the sensors into one area allows them to go full screen into all 4 corners, with not only the screen, but also the app icons, dock, glass and steel maintaining the same corner radius. If you think about it, the attention to detail for just the corner of the device is pretty crazy. Icon, dock, screen, glass, steel all following the same curved radius:
2) Going with the right side image essentially makes the phone look like it has a top and bottom bezel, and it would really start to look like the almost bezel-less Android phones:
3) In the new era of iPhone without a home button, they likely want a distinguishing look. Logically I think that's part of why they didn't try to hide the notch at all. They're using it in the new iPhone glyph, and it's something to help it stand apart from other phones:
It's very easy to say "the notch is ugly" or "I hate it". I'm not trying excuse or rationalize anything. Simply trying to work through what Apple's thinking behind this might be. They're not just going to do something for glory when they put so much attention into details in everything they do. The combination of them wanting an all screen phone, wanting a unique look, and needing somewhere to jam 8 components of front facing hardware, I'd guess this is how they ended up with this design.
Currently no phone is fully edge to edge or completely bezel-less. I don't know how far the technology can be pushed in the coming years, but there's a lot of pretty advanced sensors in the notch and bezels of other phones, and I can't imagine there's an easy solution to hiding them and really making a full edge to edge phone.
Also, even more interesting is that Samsung may be going the same route next year. Patent filed recently for what looks like all screen front with a notch to hold sensors and camera:

I think it's safe to assume Apple wants to have an iPhone where the whole front is a screen. Problem is, there are several sensors, speaker, camera that need to go somewhere. Right now this is a fact.
For those who dislike the notch, I assume you would have preferred the image on the right - hiding everything using the OLED screen?
I would say that's actually a very cool and clean look. However, Apple has obviously decided against that. There's a few reasons I can think of that lead Apple to go with the layout on the left:
1) They really want as much screen on the front as possible. Covering the whole front as much as possible and squeezing all the sensors into one area allows them to go full screen into all 4 corners, with not only the screen, but also the app icons, dock, glass and steel maintaining the same corner radius. If you think about it, the attention to detail for just the corner of the device is pretty crazy. Icon, dock, screen, glass, steel all following the same curved radius:
2) Going with the right side image essentially makes the phone look like it has a top and bottom bezel, and it would really start to look like the almost bezel-less Android phones:
3) In the new era of iPhone without a home button, they likely want a distinguishing look. Logically I think that's part of why they didn't try to hide the notch at all. They're using it in the new iPhone glyph, and it's something to help it stand apart from other phones:
It's very easy to say "the notch is ugly" or "I hate it". I'm not trying excuse or rationalize anything. Simply trying to work through what Apple's thinking behind this might be. They're not just going to do something for glory when they put so much attention into details in everything they do. The combination of them wanting an all screen phone, wanting a unique look, and needing somewhere to jam 8 components of front facing hardware, I'd guess this is how they ended up with this design.
This phone isnt edge to edge no matter how much people want it to be
Currently no phone is fully edge to edge or completely bezel-less. I don't know how far the technology can be pushed in the coming years, but there's a lot of pretty advanced sensors in the notch and bezels of other phones, and I can't imagine there's an easy solution to hiding them and really making a full edge to edge phone.
Also, even more interesting is that Samsung may be going the same route next year. Patent filed recently for what looks like all screen front with a notch to hold sensors and camera:

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