when it comes to modern technology minimalism is the name of the game and
the lightweight sleek devices we use today look nothing like the clunky boxes
of yesteryear however there is still one
very noticeable limitation in humanity's quest to build the most futuristic
looking gadgets possible bezels those bulky frames that surround our screens
and that companies seem to be tripping over themselves to get rid of not just
for a sexier aesthetic but also to cram as much screen real estate as possible
into smaller and smaller packages but whether we're talking about a phone a
monitor or a tv it seems like bezels are
still a necessity for the time being but why to answer we reached out to
sashacron at ASUS a manufacturer of all three of those product categories and
we'd like to thank him for providing us with an assist on this video let's start
with the simplest reason that we still have bezels the edges of modern lcd and
led displays need to be protected because they're made up of multiple
layers that need to be sealed up somehow i mean think of trying to take a triple
decker sandwich home from the deli without wrapping it up in plastic first
but that's not the end of it beyond structural protection and support it
turns out that bezels often house the equipment that drives the display itself
such as circuits and traces that run up
to the screen and if you're talking about a monitor these components are
often stored in the bottom bezel that's why that particular one is usually quite
a bit bigger now it is certainly possible to put the
components behind the display but this can add a fair amount of thickness which
may impact the product's appeal to consumers but okay
hold on a second Linus my smartphone has super thin bezels and doesn't even have
a gigantic chin why can't they just do whatever they're
doing in smartphones well part of why phones get all the love is out of
necessity phones obviously have a greater need to be more portable than
other everyday electronics so it makes sense that quite a bit more work has
gone into eliminating phone bezels versus the ones on monitors or tvs
and phones have the added benefit of receiving extra structural support from
having the logic board and the battery built in there's also an economic reason
profit margins on phone displays are quite a bit higher than on monitors
laptops and tvs because panels get produced in large batches which means
that you can make many more phones from one batch than you can larger displays
also phones tend to be relatively expensive for their size meaning that
manufacturers can invest more in developing ways to reduce their bezel's
footprint so some phones have their screens
partially folded around the edge so that the part of the screen that needs
protecting is tucked underneath the phone's back cover allowing for narrower
bezels in some cases this can actually be clearly seen from the outside such as
with samsung's galaxy edge series other times the panel drivers can actually be
folded behind the display something that is much more difficult to do on a gaming
laptop you see quickly switching pixels
on and off to get high refresh rates and
fast pixel response times requires a lot of current which means thicker wires or
traces are required to carry it now on phones these factors tend not to matter
as much so manufacturers can get away with using thin traces that are easier
to fold not so on something like a gaming laptop
so all of this has meant that we look to be on a slow march towards phones with
very very minimal bezels even phones that are nearly all screens such as
xiaomi's concept mix alpha but as for
the larger displays well it's certainly possible to make a
very thin bezel out of a transparent material like glass so that it's less
obvious but to get a truly bezel-free display
the most promising technology right now looks like micro lead you can learn more
about that up here but it can get away without using bezels because the
circuitry that drives the leds is embedded in an extremely thin substrate
that forms part of the display itself so it doesn't need the bezels either for
structural support or to hold electronic components of course if you really want
a bezel-free display experience right this second you could always just go out
and buy a hololens as long as you don't mind looking like a total dork
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