Xiaomi Claims the Crown in the Bezel-less Display Market with the Mi Mix

Beauty against protection. Design against functionality. Bezel-less displays do look cool on our smartphones but they also make them look fragile and seem easy to shatter. Bezels play a structurally important role keeping the display in its place, so smartphone manufacturers really had to strive for making them thinner and thinner until practically getting rid of them.

In recent years, bezels have become increasingly slimmer, to a point where several companies have claimed their device to be “the first bezel-less display smartphone”, but it is actually hard to tell which phone and manufacturer that breakthrough belongs to. Let us see a few examples:

The First Device without bezel

I n August 2014, Japanese manufacturer Sharp, a pioneer in making frameless LCD televisions, introduced the Sharp AQUOS Crystal, with a “groundbreaking edgeless design”. It is commonly accepted as the first bezel-less smartphone among the tech world community, although it was almost not commercialized outside Japan. But other companies, like Chinese Subor, which in early 2015 announced its S3 to be the World´s first bezel-less smartphone; or ZTE, with their Nubia Z9, have also claimed to have manufactured the first edge-to-edge device.

Socurce: Engadget

The manufacturing technology that has made bezel-less monitors possible has its key point in placing the cables under the display instead of on its sides, allowing bezels to be reduced and avoiding the activation of the phone by unsurprisingly pressing the screen around the edge while holding it. This technology has been optimized so much that the edges of bezel-less monitors of devices released recently are also sensible to touch and allow users to turn on and off the camera, take photos or lock and unlock the device.

The world biggest manufacturers have noted the people´s fondness for bezel-less monitors and some of their flagship devices already have edge-to-edge displays. Chinese corporation Huawei has managed to fit a 6-inch bezel-less monitor in their Huawei Mate 8, released in February. Apple and Samsung do not want to be left behind and there are already rumors about both iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 both being frameless. But all the focuses in the smartphone world have being put in the soon-to-come device by Xiaomi.

The Mi Mix: Xiaomi’s New Flagship Phone

The Chinese phone company will release the Xiaomi Mi Mix phone for sale on November 4^th. This 6.4-inch work of art will feature a bezel-less monitor with curved corners feature several navigation buttons to help users that won´t be able to reach all the surface of its big screen. This is the first device with such a big bezel-less display; Huawei Mate 8 has 6 inches, which is already bigger than most frameless devices released lately.

Unlike other devices that keep a top and bottom area available for the front camera and home button, Xiaomi Mi Mix leaves only a small space in the bottom right corner for its 5-megapixel front camera; the main one is 16 MP. Another big advantage of the Mix is its 4400 mAh battery (more than most devices in this range) featuring Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.

Some lucky users have already received the Mi Mix and been able to test it giving high praise to the sleek design and functionality. However, only time will tell how successful the long-awaited Xiaomi Mi Mix will be.

Updated 10/11/2016

Mi Mix Unboxing video

We have no just got our hands on the new Mi Mix – You can see the full unboxing video here

To see all the specifications and preorder the Xiaomi Mix head over to the Chinavasion web store.