Bezels on the way out in modern smartphones

BEZELS are the enemy: ugly, useless, unwanted strips of non-screen that serve no purpose except for tainting your smartphone’s looks.

At least, that’s what the manufacturers want you to think.

The anti-bezel brigade has been particularly vocal in recent years, as it’s become clear that technology has improved to the point where ‘all-screen’ phones are actually possible.

For comparison, the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 – two of the best handsets on the market – have a screen-to-body ratio of just over 65% and just over 70%, respectively.

That hasn’t stopped the likes of Sony, Huawei and, if all the leaks we’ve seen prove accurate, Samsung and Apple from adopting a similar, albeit less extreme, approach.

The Sony Xperia XA1 and Huawei P10 have launched with super-slim bezels, and the likelihood is that the upcoming Galaxy S8 and iPhone 8 will follow suit.

“From an ergonomic perspective, there is a real conflict with modern smartphones,” said Dan Jenkins, research lead at DCA Design International and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.

“From a visual and cognitive viewpoint, large screens are great; they allow plenty of space for displaying content, while keeping text legible and buttons large enough for easy interaction. “From a physical perspective, however, large screens pose some challenges.” Consumers with small hands are particularly familiar with these. It can be tough to reach all parts of a largescreened phone comfortably and they can prove tricky to grip, especially if you happen to be standing on a bus, with one of your hands clinging to a pole.

“Bezel-less phones have a clear advantage, as they offer the largest screen possible for a given phone size,” added Jenkins.

“However, they also introduce challenges that need to be managed, such as inadvertent activation of the display, and overextending the thumb to reach the bottom of the screen.”

Companies are addressing the accidental activation issue with special software, but the sensation of inadvertently touching your screen with your palm still feels wrong.

“Another thing to consider is the robustness of the phone. Moving the screen to the edges may make the screen even more likely to shatter if dropped.

“The edgeless design also complicates the design of the firstline of defence against dropping: the third-party protective case.”

Iain Murphy, the production director of smartphone case manufacturer Proporta, agrees with this last point.

“Yes, we think edge-to-edge screens are more fragile, although the improvements in glass toughness are helping to counter this,” he said.

“Thinner bezels means there is less for the consumer to hold onto, so when we are designing the back shells, and taking into consideration how consumers hold their smartphones, we are looking for innovative ways of making this more secure, while also keeping access to all the important ports, buttons and switches.” – The Independent