It may have decided to follow its own design ethos for the Galaxy S9, but Samsung is planning to follow the rest of the competition by echoing the standout feature of Apple’s iPhone X. Stand by for the Galaxy Notch.

Lurking inside a recent patent (and reported on by Mobiel Kopen) is Samsung’s approach to maximizing the screen to body ratio that faces the user. The screen will reach as high as possible, and the South Korean company will pack as many forward facing electronics into a small cut-out at the top of the screen.

The notch. The notch that was started by Sharp and Essential, but will forever be associated with Apple, continues its march into the flagship form factor. To be fair, everyone is following the same design trends of maximizing frontal area while minimising visible bezels. There’s not much else you can do – and with Google offering native software support in Android for screen cut outs this is the way forward, at least until more technology can be packed under an active display and the notch can be summarily deleted.

Which, curiously, is the second design laid out in the patent – no visible camera or sensors, no visible home button, and no visible fingerprint reader. Samsung has a plan to cram everything under a screen that shows and hides everything as one.

Do note that the sketches fail to show a curved edge on the long edges of the display – a key feature of Samsung’s Galaxy S devices. That suggests a number of approaches. First of all the patent application could be from some years ago when Samsung still offered a vanilla and edge variant of its flagship (this is a patent application to show the notch off, so not every feature of a commercial handset needs to be noted). Secondly, it could be that Samsung is ready to drop one of the key identifying features of the Galaxy S series, although I find that hard to believe giving how much of the current flagship fight is built around brand awareness and marketing.

It’s more likely that Samsung will push its second-tier Galaxy A devices with a flat screen and a notch. Given Apple’s maniacal desire to push its handset prices over one thousand dollars for a notched screen, Samsung could pick up a lot of business with a mid-range notched smartphone for the masses.