Lay-On-Table Design

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What Does Lay-On-Table Design Mean?

A lay-on-table design is a design where a smartphone, or a case or accessory, provides a lip or edge around the screen, so that if the device is placed face down, the screen does not actually contact the surface beneath it. Modern smartphones are being designed this way, in order to avoid scratches on the surface of the touchscreen.

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Techopedia Explains Lay-On-Table Design

In many cases, the phone itself does not have a lay-on-table design, so users have to buy shells or cases that raise the face of the phone above the table surface. For example, some older iPhones are completely flat, and the lay-on-table design is provided by the case.

However, there is a debate about exactly how necessary a lay-on-table design is. Some might ask: how often do people place their devices on surfaces that would be rough or uneven enough to scratch the screen? And if the surface was rough enough, wouldn’t it still scratch, even with a small lip or edge to raise the screen off of the surface? However, others would contend that the value of the devices merits something like a lay-on-table design, along with other protective features that make a smartphone last longer and stay in better condition with continued use.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.