Battle for Bezel-less Display

  “Bezel-less displays represent the new path of evolution for smartphone design”

And this year, it seems that bezel-less display is the buzzword for smartphones, with major brands jumping on the bandwagon. Not only are such devices are a beauty to look at, they also offer a larger screen, while remaining pocketable. In case you are looking to pick one such smartphone, here are our top picks for smartphones that flaunt bezel-less displays. 

     Samsung was quick to adopt the new trend for its flagships, the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Not only do the displays on these handsets miss out on bezels, they also bear a unique 18.5:9 aspect ratio, which Samsung refers to as Infinity display. Equipped with Super AMOLED technology and a QHD resolution, the S8 duo arguably offers the best smartphone display along with support for HDR videos. Add to it, the top-notch spec sheet and the flagships seem leagues ahead of the competition. They come powered by the latest Exynos 8895 SoC mated to 4GB RAM, while there’s another variant of the S8+ packing in 6 gigs of RAM. With Samsung’s signature glass and metal design, the Galaxy S8 siblings are among the prettiest smartphones that money can buy today. 

Samsung Galaxy Note 8:

The latest entry in the Samsung’s flagship Note series features a similar bezel-less design to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones but can be termed slightly squar-ish in comparison. The handset comes with taller-than-usual 18.5:9 aspect ratio and a curved design on the sides of the display. It has a 6.3-inch display with a screen resolution of 1,440 x 2,960 pixels. The Galaxy Note8 packs 6GB of RAM and houses a 3300mAh battery, which is surprisingly smaller in capacity to the one present on Galaxy S8+. Notably, the Galaxy Note8 features a dual-camera module at the rear and comes with S Pen stylus, both of which are missing from the Galaxy S series of smartphones.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2:

                                                                                                                                                                       Xiaomi’s second iteration of a bezel-less smartphone in the premium segment comes with a 5.99-inch display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, which is quickly becoming a norm in the industry. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor coupled with 6GB of RAM. The handset has been launched by Xiaomi in 128GB storage variant. In terms of optics, the Mix 2 offers a 12-megapixel Sony IMX386 rear camera with 4-axis optical image stabilisation, and a 5-megapixel shooter at the front although it’s placed at the bottom. 

LG G6:

          While LG didn’t taste much success with its innovative semi-modular approach for last year’s G5  flagship, this time around, the brand has stuck to the basics. In fact, the LG G6 is a far cry from its predecessor and comes with a revamped design. The bezel-less display in the front measures 5.7-inches with a screen resolution of 1,440 x 2,880 pixels. Similar to the Samsung’s flagship duo, it has a distinct aspect ratio of 18:9. The phone also supports HDR 10 and Dolby Vision standards, ensuring better contrast and an immersive experience with compatible videos. On the performance front, it has Snapdragon 821 SoC with 4GB RAM. At the rear, the spotlight is grabbed by the dual 13 MP cameras with f/1.8 aperture, which are one of the best in the business.

Honor 9i:

The new addition to the list comes with a 5.9-inch bezel-less full-HD+ (1,080 x 2,160 pixels) display that has been termed by the company as ‘FullView’. It’s powered by an octa-core Kirin 659 processor coupled with 4GB of RAM. Along with a bezel-free display, the highlight of the Honor 9i is a dual camera setup at both front and rear ends. The rear camera setup has a 16-megapixel sensor along with a 2-megapixel sensor while the front-facing camera setup comprises of a 13-megapixel sensor tagged along with a 2-megapixel sensor. 

Micromax Canvas Infinity:

The Micromax Canvas Infinity is among the most affordable smartphones in this roundup. The handset sports a 5.7-inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by a Snapdragon 625 processor coupled with 3GB of RAM and comes with a 16-megapixel camera at the front-end for clicking better selfies. It houses a 2,900mAh battery that has been rated to provide 20 hours of talktime. 

All About Nokia 8

Nokia’s recent return to the smartphone business will have the warm approval of a whole generation of mobile users. While the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 all had their strong points, it’s the Nokia 8 that really sets the tone for the revitalised brand.

This a flagship phone through and through, with major components and features that are ostensibly a match for the best that Samsung, HTC and LG can muster. Despite this, it comes with a £500 price tag that’s slightly lower than most of its 2017 rivals – apart from the £450 OnePlus 5, which, in many ways, is the most direct comparison here.

But simple spec-box ticking was never enough for Nokia during its feature phone pomp, and it isn’t enough to win you market share in the jam-packed Android flagship field. You need a distinctive angle and a little sprinkling of design magic, and I’m not sure the Nokia 8 has quite enough of either.

Nokia was renowned for its distinctive hardware design and impeccable build quality way before Apple arrived on the scene. This is the reason it’s in this, more than any other area, that the Nokia 8 will probably be scrutinised above rivals.

The Nokia 8 stands up pretty well for the most part. There’s nothing to fault its design for other than a lack of wow factor.

It’s a pretty typical slab of aluminium and glass, with curved edges and subtle plastic antennas on the top and bottom edges. There’s a little raised aluminium rim around its dual-camera, and you’ll find a recessed, non-clicky home button/fingerprint sensor below the display; this is flanked by capacitive back and app-switching button

Nokia 8 – Display

Nokia has taken the somewhat unusual step of fitting the Nokia 8 with a smaller-than-typical display. At 5.3 inches, you still wouldn’t call it a compact phone, but 5.5 inches is the more typical size – and that’s only going to increase as edge-to-edge screens become the norm.

I didn’t have an issue with this unusual size at all, though. It’s still too big to use single-handed, but it shows off media and web content just fine.

It does make you question whether the choice of a Quad-HD resolution was strictly necessary. Again, I came to the Nokia 8 from the OnePlus 5, which has a larger (5.5-inch) and much less pixel-dense (1080p) display, yet I wouldn’t say that there was a noticeable step up in visual fidelity.

There remains a question over QHD’s true smartphone worth for anything other than VR applications. Even the Samsung Galaxy S8’s huge – and brilliant – 5.8-inch screen defaults to 1080p.

Perhaps more meaningfully, Nokia has taken the decision to opt for LCD over OLED – and this display is a perfectly cool, crisp and bright (to the tune of 700 nits) example. But Nokia used to be known for its smart use of OLED in its Windows Phone days, particularly with its Glance readout, which is present here.

Nokia 8 – Performance

There are absolutely no complaints with the Nokia 8’s performance or specs. It comes equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip, which is the go-to processor for 2017 flagship phones.

This is a super-fast yet energy-efficient SoC that will handle anything you throw at it with consummate ease, and which doesn’t suffer for the extra pixels of a QHD display. Backed by 4GB of RAM, and lacking a hefty custom skin, everything moves fluidly on the Nokia 8.

Of course, virtually every other flagship Android phone of 2017 has an identical spec, so this is really table stakes at this point. But the point remains, the Nokia 8 is a smooth operator.

Recent 3D games such as Gear.Club and Guns of Boom ran flat out during my test period, as did fast-paced 2D fare such as ReRunners; on a separate but related note, the downward-facing speaker is a little weedy and easy to cover up in such situations.

The phone doesn’t become too hot when such high-end tasks are running, either. Besides the energy-efficient Snapdragon 835 CPU, this is likely down to Nokia’s inclusion of a copper cooling pipe with a graphite shield, which apparently dissipates system heat across the phone’s body.

In terms of benchmarking, an average Geekbench 4 score of 6578 pitches the Nokia 8 right up there in between the OnePlus 5 (6719) and the Sony Xperia XZ Premium (6492). It’s fast alright.

Galaxy Note8 vs iPhone 8 Plus

It's a pair of cameras each but who wore it better? We all know the iPhone did it first, and Samsung's a little late to this party. And yes, we all know that between these two it's not  really a 'hey, you've got the same shirt, let's hang out together' moment - no, it's more like 'look the other way and pretend they're not there'.

                                                                                                                              

Apple was the first to do a wide+tele camera on the iPhone 7 Plus (each of them only moderately wide or tele, strictly speaking), with other makers opting for different ways to beef up their camera credentials. A generation later, the iPhone 8 Plus comes with essentially the same specs, but new sensors and improved processing.

The Galaxy Note8, on the other hand, is the first of its kind for Samsung - a smartphone with a dual camera, that is. And which exactly path did Samsung take? The one lined with apple trees. Don't get us wrong, the wide+tele arrangement is the one to have - even if we're far from a consensus on this one, the number of actual phones owned in the office points in that direction. And it's only natural that Samsung would target its archnemesis, instead of shooting in the dark, right?

But in the dark the Galaxy Note8 can shoot too - both of its rear cameras have larger sensors behind wider aperture lenses than what the iPhone 8 Plus has. Same for the selfie cam.

Where the iPhone is unrivaled, a quick look at the specsheet will tell you, is video recording - 4K/60fps is a first on a phone, and so is 1080p/240fps slo-mo. The Note's slo-mo is a more pedestrian 720p/240fs, and 4K recording is only available in 30fps.

	Apple iPhone 8 Plus	Samsung Galaxy Note8
Main (wide-angle) camera	12MP, 4032 x 3024px	12MP, 4032 x 3024px
Sensor	4:3 aspect, 1/3" sensor size, 1.22µm pixel size	4:3 aspect, 1/2.55" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size
Lens	f/1.8, 28mm, OIS	f/1.7, 26mm, OIS
Focus	PDAF	Dual Pixel PDAF
Telephoto camera	12MP, 4032 x 3024px	12MP, 4032 x 3024px
Sensor	4:3 aspect, 1/3.6" sensor size, 1.0µm pixel size	4:3 aspect, 1/3.6" sensor size, 1.0µm pixel size
Lens	f/2.8, 56mm	f/2.4, 52mm, OIS
Focus	CDAF	PDAF
Flash	Dual-tone, 4-LED flash	Single LED Flash
Video recording	2160p@60/30/24fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 1080p@240/120fps slo-mo	2160p@30fps, 1440p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@240fps slo-mo
Video IS	OIS (main camera only) +EIS	OIS+EIS
Video features	Mono audio	Stereo audio
Front camera	7MP, 1.0µm, f/2.2, 32mm, 1080p@30fps	8 MP, 1/3.6", 1.22µm, f/1.7, 25mm, 1440p@30fps

Women in Technolgy

When it comes to gender equality in the tech industry, the numbers probably won’t surprise you. Only 19% of venture-backed companiesare founded by women, and women make up just 8% of partners at 100 of the top venture capitalist firms.

Although many attempts are being made to encourage women into tech, we are still far from gender parity in the industry. What would the world look like if there were equal numbers of men and women in the sector? We asked three women in tech, from CEO's to developers, for their thoughts.

With greater equality, the tech world would benefit from both work titles free of gender and diverse perspectives – it would produce better products designed and marketed to women (which are not just covered in pink). It would also mean a better world – more diverse voices would mean products and services that work for everyone.

I don’t want my accomplishments to be attributed to my gender. I can manage, lead and create just as easily when leaving gender out of my job title. My work speaks for itself – as it should. Titles like “#Girlboss” actually diminish the power of women. We use this label to describe female bosses based on their gender instead of the job they are doing. 

If we do achieve gender parity in tech, it will create more opportunities to design technology for all.