The slim and sleek ASUS flagship, the ZenFone 5, is considered a worthy rival of other famous high-end devices. And like other Android top-tier phones, it also features the now ubiquitous notch on top. For those who are unaware of what a notch is, it’s the black bar on top of the screen that houses the front-facing camera and other sensors. The design is obviously aimed to copy the look of Apple iPhone X lines. If you don’t like how your ASUS ZenFone 5 looks like without the notch, or simply wanting to remove it altogether, this article should help.
Method 1: Remove or hide the notch on ASUS ZenFone 5 under Settings
Originally, ASUS left out an option to disable the notch, prompting users who are not fond of this Apple copycat trend to request for it. At this time, all ASUS ZenFone 5 lines already have an this option to turn off the notch so it’s good news. If you are not fond of the notch too, learn how to disable it with the steps below.
- Open Settings app.
- Tap Display.
- Toggle Hide notch on. This will make the notch black making it blend with the rest of the screen.
This is not a perfect solution to hide the notch because it may still show up when using some apps. Toggling Hide notch on also appears to cram together time and battery icon at the top. At this time, there’s no apparent design modifications coming so you’ll have to either use this method or the other one below.
Method 2: Remove or hide the notch on ASUS ZenFone 5 using an app
The second method of hiding the notch is with the help of a third party app like Nacho Notch. This is a free app that you can download from the Play Store. It’s dedicated purpose is, you guessed it, hide the notch. There are other similar apps as well so if you don’t want Nacho Notch, just use a different one.
Unlike the built-in option to hide the notch, Nacho Notch will not make the spaces around the notch useless. It leaves the status bar around it usable, allowing notifications and icons to continue showing up at the top. To make it easier to use, you can put a Nacho Notch quick settings tile in the notification drawer. This allows you to quickly enable or disable it.
Nacho Notch doesn’t work on the lock screen so the notch should still be visible there.
To use the Nacho Notch app, follow these steps:
- Install the Nacho Notch app from the Play Store.
- Open the Notifications panel.
- Add the button named Hide Notch.
- Toggle the setting on and off to see if it works.
- Done!