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ZTE to Release Note 10 Like Device Before Samsung
July 29, 2019
 
ZTE has been rumored to be working on a new smartphone that looks quite similar to the renderings of the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Note 10 but has taken the idea of full screen displays to its ultimate conclusion.  Smartphone designers seem to be obsessed with increasing the SBR (screen to body ratio) on new phones, eliminating bezels, notches, cameras, and fingerprint sensors from the valuable real estate on smartphone displays. ZTE, a company that is suffering from U.S. trade restrictions sells a number of mid to low prices smartphones including the popular Honor (one of ZTE’s brands) Play, last year’s winning gaming smartphone.  Now, they are targeting the not-yet-released Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and have removed the camera cut out (and everything else) from the front display, giving the phone a theoretical 100% SBR.  In order to do this, and not make life excruciatingly difficult for those that get confused as to how to take pictures with a full screen phone, they have added a small screen on the back.
 
 
Figure 1: ZTE Smartphone Shipments

Source: Mizuho

The images below are leaked renderings and IP drawings, and it appears that ZTE is preparing to produce a Note 10 ‘enhanced’ copy before the Note 10 has been released (August).  It is hard to imagine progressively shorter smartphone cycles, but the smartphone industry may become more like the fashion industry, where styles change every 6 months and high-volume, high discounted knock-offs appear just a few weeks after high-end fashions are shown.
 
Figure 2: Samsung Note 10 & ZTE Comparison 

Source: SCMR, LLC