The smartphone manufacturers are taking the bezel-less design to the next level by experimenting with things like notches, bone conduction earpiece, in-display fingerprint scanner etc. But you still need just a little bezel for the front camera and ambient light sensor. So how do you make a completely bezel-less phone? Looks like Chinese smartphone manufacturers have got the answer.
Vivo has the craziest solution so far, with a phone that hides the selfie camera inside the body and it pops up using a motorized mechanism when you open up the camera app in selfie mode. Another company, Doogee has got a better and simpler solution with their prototype smartphone “Mix 4” which utilizes a dual-layer slide design to expose the selfie camera and sensors hidden behind the display.
The Doogee Mix 4 prototype was recently unveiled by a tech YouTube channel “Mrwhosetheboss”. The device features a 6 inch AMOLED display with virtually no bezels at all and has a whopping 97% screen to body ratio which puts even Galaxy S9 to shame. It allows fitting bigger displays in a very compact form factor. But the thing to worry about is that introducing moving parts into a phone can create flexing, creaking and more things to go wrong. Despite the moving parts, the prototype felt surprisingly solid, well-built and single uniform object as reviewed by the YouTuber.
The phone is an impressive feat of engineering from the design standpoint, it hides the camera and all the accompanying sensors really well. It is comparatively thick cause of the dual-layer design and measures at 11mm but because of the bezel-less front, it is really smaller in other dimensions which makes it still easily pocketable. Most of the phone’s electronics are packed in the back layer of the device including the volume rocker and the power button which are placed on the right-hand side.
The rest of the hardware is pretty standard; the phone has a dual camera setup at the back and also at the front, there are bottom facing grilles for the speaker and there is a USB-C port. No other details or specs about the device were revealed except for that it will have an in-display fingerprint scanner and will be powered by a Snapdragon processor.
Although, there are still some compromises like you will have to slide down the phone every time you want to make or receive a phone as the proximity sensor is at the back. This can also interfere with automatic brightness because when the phone is tucked away the ambient light sensor is hidden. However, the company can make this flick action to automatically answer the phone call or open the camera app in selfie mode which can make it a bit convenient.
This is currently just a prototype and it is unclear how the final software will work. The company has not mentioned about when this device will hit the shelves. However, the Mix 3 is not available yet and is expected sometime in June, and Mrwhosetheboss guesses the Mix 4 might be available by year’s end and will cost around $300.