Porsche Design told Huawei “No Notch” for the Huawei Mate RS

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Porsche Design and Huawei’s latest lovechild is a smartphone that you will probably never own because it costs $1,880. The Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, as the branding suggests, is a luxury smartphone that was unveiled along with the Huawei P20 series. Like the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and P20 Pro, the Mate RS features the HiSilicon Kirin 970 and 6GB of RAM. The premium price tag comes from the fact that it was designed in collaboration with Porsche Design, has an in-display fingerprint scanner, and “aerospace cooling” among other aspects. According to DigitalTrends, one thing about the phone was clear from the very start – there was never going to be a display notch.

Porsche Design was against the concept of a display notch from the beginning of negotiations with Huawei, according to DigitalTrends. Porsche Design’s Design Director, Christian Schwamkrug, said that he finds notches “disturbing, from a design philosophy.” Thus, Huawei opted for a screen similar to the P20 (though with an OLED panel made by LG), curved edges and all, but without a cut out at the top of the screen. Other aspects of the P20’s design language were also changed to satisfy Porsche Design. For example, the P20 Pro’s sideways cameras were instead placed on the center of the back to be more symmetrical. If it were possible, Porsche Design also would have opted not to have a camera bump.

Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS. Source: Porsche Design.

In essence, the Huawei Mate RS is a branded version of the Huawei P20 Pro with some extra bells and whistles on top. It’s expensive, but it looks good and follows a design language that Porsche Design is comfortable putting their name on. The company clearly had a lot of say on the overall design of the product. It’s a luxury product for a luxury brand, and at $1,880 it has to be extremely well designed. Porsche Design clearly thinks the notch would have been a blemish on the phone’s design. We’re sure that some of you may agree with that thought, given the controversy behind display notches.