This phone has a design that many of you have wanted for years

Even though many smartphone users don't like looking at the bezels on their phones, they are there for a reason. They prevent accidental touches since gripping a phone typically results in the tip of a finger, or a palm, touching the screen and activating a feature you didn't plan on enabling.

What do the bezels on your phone do?

You might not realize that there are other things that the bezels do. They also provide protection between the display glass and the metal casing of the handset. When you drop your phone (and you know that eventually you will), the bezel absorbs the force of the drop, preventing the glass from shattering. The bezel also combines with the frame to keep water, dust, and debris out of the phone.

Thinner bezels add component and production costs as modifications have to be made by the manufacturer. For example, in some cases, an OLED panel has to fold back under itself to hide the controllers used for the screen. This adds extra component and production costs, which explains why lower-priced mid-range phones usually sport larger bezels.

Which rumored iPhone 20 feature will lead you to buy the phone?

Back in May, we told you about a display panel produced by a company called Tianma, which had a record-breaking (at the time) 0.35mm bezel at the panel level and 0.60mm at the module level. It has a screen-to-body ratio as high as 98.5%.

Tecno will soon unveil a concept phone sporting 0mm bezels

But records are made to be broken, and a company called TECNO recently posted a promotional video about a concept phone with 0mm bezels. This device will be introduced at IFA 2026 in Berlin from September 4 to September 8 and is named "The TECNO Next-Gen Bezelless Concept Phone."

The iPhone 20 is expected to be released in 2027, the twentieth anniversary of the iPhone's unveiling and release (January 7th and June 29th, respectively). This model could have a design closer to the one that former Apple design chief Jony Ive had in mind for the original iPhone.

The iPhone 20 could end up as a slab of glass

The iPhone 20 could feature a 7-inch display and is expected to use curved glass to make it appear as though the bezels around the screen have disappeared. Apple is looking to get rid of all buttons and ports, creating a phone made to look like a single slab of glass.

To put things in perspective, the original iPhone featured side bezels that measured approximately 4.0mm to 4.5mm, while the top and bottom bezels were approximately 18mm to 20mm. The screen-to-body ratio on the first iPhone was a low (by modern standards) 52.35%.

While consumers generally prefer to see smaller bezels grace their handsets, it has been the seriously large-bezeled devices that get the brunt of the criticism from users. Some of the smartphones known for having large bezels include the following:

HTC U Ultra-Features a large forehead and chin.
Sony Xperia XZ Premium-Huge top and bottom bezels.
Pixel 3 XL-A large notch on top combined with a heavy chin.

On the other hand, models with small bezels include:

Xiaomi 15-Features symmetrical 1.38mm borders on all four sides.
REDMAGIC 10 Pro-Has approximately 2mm borders that look much smaller thanks to an under-display selfie camera.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max-Thin 1.36mm bezels with an approximate screen-to-body ratio of 90.7%.

Like it did with the iPhone 9, Apple is expected to bypass the iPhone 19

The bezels for the iPhone 18 Pro Max are expected to be the same size as the iPhone 17 Pro Max, although the size of the Dynamic Island is rumored to be shrinking. Keep in mind that you won't have to wait too long for the iPhone 20 since there will be no iPhone 19 series.

To make sure that the iPhone 20 is released in 2027, the 20th anniversary of the revolutionary consumer electronics product, there will be no iPhone 19 next year. Apple did the same thing in 2017 when it bypassed the iPhone 9 in order to release the iPhone X, marking the 10-year anniversary of the device.

Enjoy reading about the size of smartphone bezels? Check out these articles:

Why smartphone displays need a bezel.
It's time to stop obsessing about bezel sizes.
What to expect from the iPhone 20.

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