Smartphone designs are having a rather interesting phase in the last few months. Where on one hand, the design language shows a negligible upgrade in the budget segment, the flagship category is seeing some interesting innovative experiments from the handset manufacturers. With the death of Project Ara last year, we are highly sceptical of anything related to modularity in smartphones, however, last year we saw another concept of bezel-less display getting a strong kick with the launch of Xiaomi’s Mi Mix.
Interestingly, the biggest change in the smartphone designs this year, up till now, has been the bezel-less displays. Starting with the launch of LG G6 at the Mobile World Congress, the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S8 has taken a step higher with making that bezel-less display curved from the sides. Not only this, the much awaited iPhone 8 is also expected to boast a bezel-less display up front which might be curved just like the Galaxy S8.
So with major companies seriously considering bezel-less displays, can we conclude that this might as well be the next big thing in the smartphone industry? Well, in all probability, Yes!. Those concept videos from a couple of years back of a person using a smartphone with absolutely no bezels is not a long way to go, although, we might have to make some compromises there.
With all that bezel-less design, which no doubt looks stunning, come concerns about durability. Let us take it this way, would you prefer a smartphone with a bezel-less display with less durability or a smartphone with decent bezels with higher durability? Durability here simply refers to a number of times these smartphones can take a drop and if you ask us, it’s not much. But then, you must be wondering ‘Why not just put a case?’. Well, building a protective case for a bezel-less smartphone is not as easy as it looks, in the first instance. While you will surely have options for cases but they will hardly provide any protection.
Of Course, Gorilla Glass 5 both at the front and back makes the Galaxy S8 probably the most durable of the lot but it is still not enough. Not a lot of people in India use their smartphones without a case and having a phone as delicate as Galaxy S8 with not many options for protective cases, it might become an even costlier affair once you get your hands on it.
To conclude, we are really hopeful that with the bezel-less trend in motion, we will soon have a way to protect this beautiful piece of hardware without hampering the design. Yes, we know that there are a bunch of curved tempered glass available in the market, but how reliable are they? Nevertheless, we are glad that we have smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S8 and Mi Mix and we hope to see even more advancements in the technology space in the near future.