Mate RS Notch Would Be ‘Disturbing, from a Design Philosophy’

Porsche Design was blunt about its design philosophy: the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS smartphone does not have a notch because they were opposed to the idea.

The company’s design director, Christian Schwamkrug, said in an interview for Digital Trends that the notch is:

“disturbing, from a design philosophy. […] A picture is either rectangular or square, with a border line, and a clear frame format. I like symmetry. We didn’t want to have the notch, we think it’s a compromise.”

The lack of the notch is the key design difference between the Mate RS and the Huawei P20 Pro, the latter which the Porsche phone is based on.

However, there are other subtle differences between the two phones – on the Porsche Design phone, the three cameras and the fingerprint sensors are aligned in the center on the back of the phone rather than vertically on the top left. Plus, the Porsche Design has an option for 512 GB of storage and features an in-display fingerprint sensor.

The starting price of the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS is $2,028 (1,695 Euros), a steep price increase from the Huawei P20 Pro, but comes with new features that could justify the price tag.