Itty-bitty bezels are all the rage for high-end smartphones. Samsung's Edge series (which ostensibly includes the Note 7) shrinks them with curved screens, manufacturers like Sharp have crazy designs that smoosh everything down into the bottom of the body, and pretty much everyone is trying to make the edges of their devices as small as possible. But no one has reached the holy grail of this idea: a phone that's basically just a screen on the front. JDI, a Japanese technology supplier, is working on it with their latest design.
The company just introduced a new 5.5-inch, 1080p mobile LCD panel that has the same kind of super-skinny bezels we've seen on high-end phones for the last few years, but on all four edges. (Compare this to LG's similar design, which still needs a sizeable space on at least one side.) The screen panel uses a combination of high-density wiring and "new processing and module assembly technologies" to keep an equal bezel of only a few millimeters on every side. JDI is planning on mass-producing the screen for sale to mobile manufactures starting in March of next year.
A similar design from LG - note the controller electronics on the top edge.
The display is just one part of the puzzle to make a phone that's nuthin' but screen - aside from the limited size and resolution options, conventional handset design still needs to place at least one camera, speaker, microphone, and light/proximity sensor on the front of the device. But with phone makers and OEMs continually looking for new ways to make their devices appealing and interesting, we'll certainly be seeing some eye-catching results sooner rather than later.
Source: JDI