Hacker News Reader

Comment by neals | Hacker News Reader

Without the bezels, all our phones will look the same. We'll be holding a slab of pixels with some OS, with some voice-activated assistent, with some apps. More or less the same. Even more so than now.

View on HN

Personally, I'm more function over form so and I can't imagine having a bezel-less phone that won't be a nightmare to use (using one hand).

One way to do so is to make the UI in a way that it does not have anything actionable on the bezels. Kind of a "virtual" bezel.

Then honestly what's the point? You are going to sacrifice structural integrity and add cost and complexity.

A virtual bezel is about as "useful" as using virtual buttons on an Android device that has physical capacitive buttons, I never understood why people do that.

Why have whitespace in design? (Because it's aesthetically beautiful that's why which contributes to easier to read i.e. function)

Pro tip: Apple had been using software to analyze unintended edge touches and reduce the impact of thinner bezels since the first iPad mini. You'll get used to a non bezels pretty quickly (and Android is better for one-handed use than iOS)

> Then honestly what's the point? You are going to sacrifice structural integrity and add cost and complexity.

You get a big screen in a smaller form factor. Photos/videos will look great without a large bezel and it will fit better in your pocket.

Displaying information. A couple millimeters at the edge of the screen acting as display-only won't make much difference to your interaction, but you'dd be able to fit a larger display into a smaller chassis. That sounds like a win to me.

I had the Galaxy Note 7, an almost bezel-less phone, and did not encounter any issue with accidental touches. I expect bezels to continue diminishing. This will help create easier to hold devices (smaller) while keeping healthy sized screens (5").

First thing I do with any phone is put it in a case. Bezel-less is irrelevant to me, I'm going to put one in place.

'Thinnest phone ever' is similarly meaningless to me for the same reasons. I don't want a phone that feels like I'm going to snap it in half simply by using it.

iPhone user? Because I've never had the need to put a case on any of my Android phones, including me and my wife's $150 Moto G3s that get thrown around by our kids.

And I do get quite some amusement out of a product praised for it's premium design, materials and svelte features always being carried in a thick ugly plastic/silicon bumper case by essentially everyone.

> I've never had the need to put a case on any of my Android phones

Me neither, but some people just manage somehow to smash a lot of phones at a record pace. No idea how they do it.

There's a market for phone bumpers, and there's a reason for it.

That market exploded dramatically because of "you're holding it wrong". Before then, it wasn't so common to see phones in bumpers.

I remember a lot of people with these cases: http://www.fotokontorbilder.de/bilder300/50202.gif

That's a moot point seeing as there is a large demand for cases for all kinds of smartphones. Most people I know use a case. Last time I checked, it was something like >50% of all smartphone users.

> iPhone user? Because I've never had the need to put a case on any of my Android phones

I've had both, and cases go on both.

> product praised for it's premium design, materials and svelte features

Pretty sure I just said the svelte part meant nothing to me. I also really don't give a damn about the design of the phone beyond its size, I care about it's features and using it.

Except phones without bezels are tough to have a good case for since having a lip around the edge to protect from a screen down drop interferes with touch screen use.

That's what I wonder about as well. I suppose with some smarts, it might be possible to ignore touches along the edge when it is held a certain way, but why unnecessarily complicate things? Even a 4 mm bezel would be fine.

I'm not a fan either but Galaxy S Edge is quite popular and I think it has sides that are far more prone to unintended interactions. Yet, I never hear of anyone having that issue.

I have the Edge and frankly i hate this gimmick precisely for that reason. Never used cases on my previous phones, but will be looking for one this time. Love the extra large battery though, so it's not all bad.

I am having that issue with Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. Whenever the screen is unresponsive it is because you are accidentally touching some part of the screen with your palm.

I have an S6 edge and I regret that purchase pretty much every day, specifically because i can't pick up the phone without causing a touch event somehow.

Love the design though, so if they just made the side edges touch-free I would be happy.

Man, the Edge would be a great phone to run Sailfish OS on with the swipes that it uses.

I think machine learning can be employed to filter out accidental touches from the meaningful ones. It is already done in iPad Pro that allows to use Apple Pencil while holding your hand on the screen, and still detects meaningful touches.

Apple also implemented the same feature when the iPad mini (2012) came out [1]

[1] http://www.imore.com/ipad-mini-has-advanced-software-detect-...

s/machine learning/bunch of if-then-else statements/

Once we went to slabs with the original iPhone all our phones have generally looked the same. Thus this already happened.

That is less true in the west for now I think; I see enough difference in phones to recognize the different brands from a distance; however in China, it seems that all 'local' brands (most of which you never heard of) are all just making identically looking phones, mostly mirrored after the iPhone 6+/7+. With some interesting exceptions, I cannot really see the difference even from closer up with, outwardly, the same materials, same buttons in the same locations etc. It becomes even harder to see when people have a case around their phone.

Not sure if it is fundamentally a bad thing; it'll push prices down and manufacturers who want to distinguish will try other forms. Like I said before, and some here seem to agree, please experiment with more battery, focusing less on the size or speed. At the electronics fair in Hong Kong last week a friend gave me a tablet which is so cheap that if you drop it you wouldn't even pick it up but just get a new one (his words, not mine) and it is fast enough for me to browse, play some games, chat and have fine battery life. More battery life for this that kind of thing matters to me personally more than screen size/resolution or speed as the latter is more than enough for most people anyway but at the same time people complain mostly about battery life.

"Once we went to slabs with the original LG Prada all our phones have generally looked the same."

What is the problem with that?

If the sole purpose of a bezel becomes a place for displaying the logo of a maker or carrier, screw that I'll only consider phones without the wasted space.

I dont think you still get cool points anymore for showing everyone you have an iphone

We won't be holding it. It will be in our pocket for many interactions.

We'll have mini versions of one or two wireless earbuds/mic connected directly to the assistant.

So much the better. To some degree people treat their choice of device as a personal statement and I think we could all stand to move past that.

Hence why UI design should be given extreme consideration.

I think the winners will be those who will craft the most magical user experiences.

Unless someone gets a design patent on "rounded rectangle without bezels".

a circular bezelless phone, one a little chain, in my pocket. I want one.

I hope you backed runcible: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/runcible-circular-open-so...

Circular bezelless phone, on a strap, in my wrist. Oh wait.

And this is when real hardware differentiation will become mainstream:

- Smart watches

- Smart clothes

- Smart earphones

- IoT

- Drones

- Handheld tricorder-like devices

- Ambient displays

- AR headsets

LGTM, ship it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com