Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Today’s mobile phone manufacturers have realized that jumping on the price war bandwagon alone is not enough to beat their peers. Excellent hardware design and exceptional system optimization have become the not-so-secret formula for successful companies. Thanks to hardware homogeneity, screen size had become an extremely popular cellphone differentiator. While Samsung’s Galaxy Note series has supported big screen consumer phones, many Chinese manufacturers still want to do away with the borders around the screen.

Domestic manufacturers have gradually achieved some results, such as the recently released Meizu MX4, showing the obvious benefits of a narrow design. Primarily, narrow screen phone brings higher proportion of screen real estate, but the phone has a smaller body fit with a larger display, bringing better video and gaming experience and also improving phone's portability. Additionally, mobile phones with narrow borders enhance visual aesthetic.

Although a narrow border design may be a good idea, some issues are stopping manufacturers from fully embracing this trend. Despite the potential demand for various LCD screen designs, the absence of the right technology could hamper its fruition. Currently, LCD panels display a rectangular design. But while the conventional liquid crystal panels allow thinner borders, it is impossible to remove the border entirely. The fragility of a borderless phone is also an extremely important issue; if not for the border, the screen can easily be destroyed by a relatively small drop.

In an attempt to fill in this gap, Sharp SoftBank has launched two "borderless" mobile phones: the Aquos Crystal and Aquos Crystal X. In order to achieve a "no border" effect, Sharp used a new type of crystal glass touch panel—the Crystal Display technology. The beveled edges features an optical lens effect to achieve a "hidden" border, coupled with a narrow phone frame for a near-boundless effect.

This optical illusion used by Sharp could possibly solve the problem of manufacturing borderless phones. Sharp's "free-form display" technology also allows the black circle around the screen to be "invisible", with the circuits integrated into each pixel of the LCD panel. This technology can completely get rid of the circuit part of the edge of the panel. However, this panel is yet to be mass produced, and we may have to wait for some time before it finally hits the market.

Samsung's recently released Galaxy Note Edge was the first to use a curved side screen, achieving a borderless effect on mobile phones. Since manufacturers cannot completely eliminate the borders, they can alternatively do so by using the curved side of the phone screen. Curved OLED screens also have excellent durability for better screen protection. The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge also added an error prevention algorithm to prevent users from touching the curved screen by mistake. The curved screen can also be mass-produced, and is expected to reach more users soon. A borderless phone not only brings a better UI experience, but also brings the best possible visual impact. The first iPhone was miles away from the borderless concept map, enough for designers to visualize a better mobile phone without borders. Today, the technology has gradually matured and curved screens have finally entered the market. Hopefully, the borderless mobile phone consumers want to experience is not far away.

See a comparison table of 4G tablet phone suppliers on GlobalSources.com