No matter where you turn in the smartphone sector these days, there's only one thing people seem to be truly bothered about: bezels, or the lack of bezels, to be precise.
Chinese company Xiamoi arguably kicked things off with the revolutionary 'concept' phone the Mi Mix, before Apple and Samsung jumped on the bandwagon with their own big-screen devices. However, nobody has quite cracked it yet; with the iPhone X, there's the infamous notch (which has since become a fashion statement) while on Samsung's Galaxy range there are thin but still noticeable bezels at the top and bottom of the display. Fitting in elements such as the earpiece and front-facing camera is a problem; on the Mi Mix 2, Xiaomi placed the camera at the bottom of the screen, which forced users to hold it upside down for selfies.
The engineering race is on to create the first truly bezel-less smartphone, and we've had quite a few pretenders to the crown so far. Xiaomi's Mi Mix 3 is rumoured to be using a pop-up mechanism for its front-facing cameras, a feature borrowed from the Vivo Apex. However, it would seem that Lenovo – the current owner of Motorola – is teasing a breakthrough. Lenovo's Liu Jun and Chang Cheng have been seen holding a new phone – the Lenovo Z5 Pro – with a screen that covers the entire front of the device. While it's hard to make out in the images seen so far, there are no noticeable bezels on around the display.
Before you get too excited, it's worth noting that Lenovo is no stranger to the idea of bezel-free phones. Not so long ago, the bog-standard Lenovo Z5 was promoted as a totally notchless take on the big-screen concept, only for the final phone to launch with (you've guessed it) an iPhone X-style notch at the top of the screen. It's easy to see, then, why so many people are sceptical that Lenovo has actually pulled this off.
It's also worth noting – as Android Authority has done – that this photo comes hot on the heels of a video shared by Lenovo which shows a phone with a slider mechanism, similar to the one seen on the Mi Mix 3. The video shows the slider popping up to reveal what appears to be an earpiece, LED flash and selfie camera. The same video hints that this mystery phone also has an in-screen fingerprint reader – a feature which appears to be present on the Z5 Pro held up in the aforementioned photo.
Could these two phones be one and the same, or has Lenovo really cracked the full-screen smartphone challenge? Rumours suggest that the lid will be lifted on this new handset (or should that be handsets?) on China’s National Day, which is this Monday – so we don't have to wait long to see if it's the real deal.
by dmcferran via Featured Articles
Reviewed by Ossama Hashim
on
September 28, 2018
Rating:
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