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There’s a clever app that puts a battery indicator around the Galaxy S10’s hole-punch camera

There’s a clever app that puts a battery indicator around the Galaxy S10’s hole-punch camera

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Samsung’s hole-punch camera continues to be a delight

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Photo: IJP/Google PLay

Energy Ring is a customizable app that takes advantage of the Galaxy S10’s hole-punch camera to display your phone’s battery life. First spotted by Android Police, the app introduces a small ring around the lens, and you can customize the color, thickness, direction, and even 25 percent charging increments. It’s free, so I think you can definitely file this one under “fun and nifty” apps, as it’s both functional and visual.

However, it might get annoying after a while since the S10’s hole-punch camera was originally supposed to be a discreet way of squeezing a camera into a full-screen smartphone display, sans notch. Thankfully, you can disable the indicator in situations when it would prove doubly distracting, like watching movies or playing games in full-screen mode.

The app’s developer, IJP, has been building custom battery indicators for Android for a while now — including Energy Bar and a version for Galaxy S8 / S9 devices — but the Energy Ring app might just be its best work yet. It takes advantage of the growing fanfare for Samsung’s new hole-punch displays.