Check out this nearly bezel-free concept device from Japan Display!

The war on the bezel has been going on for a while now — manufacturers continuously look to cram a smartphone's components in tighter and tighter spaces, reducing the handset's body, while keeping its display in the 5-5.5” size category. A high screen-to-body ratio is important for comfort – you still get a large screen on your phone, while the smaller body around it makes it much easier to handle.

Thus far, we've grown accustomed to a “bezel-less” phone to have razor-thin frames on its sides, but still keep a regular top and bottom – the places where hardware components, such as an earpiece, microphone, home button, speaker, camera, and sensors need to fit. The Sharp Aquos is the exception to this rule, as it omits the top bezel and has no earpiece – the user needs to press their ear to the display, which sends sounds via bone conduction, by vibrating.

Well, the days of a fully bezel-less device might not be so far off. Japan Display Inc. has just demonstrated a concept prototype, which features very, very thin bezels around all of its sides. Named “Full Active” display, the device has been built with a new, high-density wiring layout, which allows for the body parts around the screen to be nigh non-existent. JDI says it will plans to start mass production of the new display in the end of 2017, and will build them for many LCD devices, smartphones included.

Of course, it's up to the manufacturers to figure out how to fit a smartphone's parts in a bezel-less handset. If we had to guess, we'd say the bottom bezel isn't going away any time soon on phones, simply because it serves the purposes of housing so much important hardware, while doubling as a “handle” of sorts, that allows the user to hold their phone without accidentally touching the display. However, for tablets, it might prove to be a very useful piece of tech.

source: Japan Display Inc. via Digital Trends

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