The smartphone industry is presently witnessing a proliferation of bezel-less full-screen phones and it is a trend that has caught up with almost all major OEMs in the industry. Those that are yet to get on the train are either about to launch their’s or are still working on their own models. Meizu seems to be one of those still working on its bezel-less smartphone. The idea of a Meizu phone has been in the news for a while now and very recently, a bezel-less Meizu mBlu Zero was spotted online only revealing a part of the bezel-less display.

The Meizu mBlu Zero looks like a device from the Blue Charm product line which has been repositioned and has the premium M6 Note as its first model after the restructuring of the entire Meizu brand. The name very well suggests the device will be in the Blue Charm line and so, it wasn’t very surprising when Meizu’s Li Nan responded to the rumored mBlu device.

Read Also: Meizu Rumoured As Working On A Bezel-Less Phone Code-named Ocean

For the avoidance of doubt, Li Nan is the President of the Meizu Blue Charm division and he did confirm that they are working on a full-screen phone and it would be released next year. This is coming as an interesting piece of information because Meizu has repeatedly denied they were working on a full-screen phone when the rumor first emerged.

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A new rumour emanating from China has hinted that Sony is likely to launch a bezel-less smartphone at IFA Berlin 2017. Sony announced the Xperia XZ Premium at MWC 2017 with a nearly bezel-less design with bezels at the top and bottom but the new flagship which is said to launch at IFA will come with a large bezel-less display.

The Weibo post referred to JDI’s announcement earlier in June that they have started the mass production of their Full Active display technology. JDI was formed in 2012 through the consolidation of the display panel businesses of Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba and had announced the Full Active LCD display technology last year which would bring completely bezel-less displays to smartphones. As a result of the mass production, it is safe to say Sony is preparing something big sometime soon since it is the most active in the smartphone industry of the three which formed JDI.

Read More: JDI Announces Dedicated VR Display With 651ppi Pixel Density

JDI has struggled in recent times due to the proliferation of LCD manufacturers in China and the shift to OLED displays spearheaded by Samsung’s AMOLED panels which seem to achieve better resolutions than LCDs. But the recent technology uses a 6-inch display and an aspect ratio of 18:9 which would place it higher than the Mi Mix in terms of screen-to-body ratio.

As exciting as this may sound, you should take it with a pinch of salt as nothing in respect to a Sony IFA 2017 launch is confirmed yet. It may turn out to be true anyway, as bezel-less smartphones seem to be the way to go presently. We have got lots of them tipped to be in the works, like the iPhoen 8, Galaxy Note 8, Mi Mix 2 and a host of others. So, it makes perfect sense if Sony decides to release their own, using JDI’s latest LCD display technology.

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A couple of months back, a new set of renders of an alleged Meizu device popped up on the internet, revealing a brand new device with a true bezel-less front. The concept render doesn’t in any way mean Meizu was working on a bezel-less phone but then, that’s how it starts.Besides, Xiaomi did the unthinkable with the Mi Mix, so anything was possible.

Not too long ago, Meizu chairman, Jack Wong, also known as Huáng Zhāng hinted that company would be celebrating its 15 years anniversary next year and as a result, they would be releasing a smartphone with cutting-edge design. Jack Wong, who returned to the company in 2014, stated that he was going to build his dream machine for the 15th anniversary of Meizu.

Read More: Meizu’s Leaked Concept Renders Shows A True Bezel-less Front, But Unlikely To Be True

This has made some to speculate that a full-screen, bezel-less design would feature on the said phone which may also pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and other top-end specs. However, Meizu VP Li Nan has stated that the company will not launch a full-screen phone this year. Li Nan agrees full-screen phones are the trendy guys this year but he still has some query about their overall design and fingerprint sensor location. That doesn’t in any way rule out the possibility of a full-screen phone from Meizu next year. That is, Jack Wang’s “Dream machine”. The fact that Li Nan is evaluating the design style may be an indication that the company is working on a full-screen phone.

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Following the release of the Xiaomi Mi MIX last November, quite a number of manufacturers have started to embrace the new design. The LG G6 with its Full Vision display is an example and Samsung’s upcoming S8 and S8+ have significantly reduced bezels. Huawei has also announced its joining the race.

Speaking at an interview following the China launch of the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus, the CEO Yu Chengdong confirmed that the company is working on a phone with the screen occupying the entire front from top to bottom. Yes, no bezels at all. Now, why that sounds good to the ears, it will be no mean feat. So we probably should not expect this to be released soon as part of his statement mentioned a focus on user experience. So not until the design is perfected will this phone launch.

READ MORE: Android Wear 2.0 Update Now Available for Original Huawei Watch

Xiaomi on the other hand is already working on a second generation Mi MIX. The target is for a device with a scree-to-body ratio of 93%, 2% more than that of the original.

What do you think of bezel-less phones? Should that be the new focus for manufacturers?

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For those who do not know who Andy Rubin is, the following lines should serve as a crash course. Andy Rubin is the co-founder of Android Inc., and after Google acquired it he served as Senior VP of Mobile and Digital Content up until 2013 when he left to head Google’s robotics division. After leaving the search giant in 2014, he set up Playground Global, an incubator for funding startups involved in manufacturing hardware devices.

Presently, he has a new company called Essential Products Inc.; a company focused on making consumer hardware products. Essential Products Inc. has plans to launch a number of their products soon, one of which is a high-end smartphone that will have ‘‘the ability to gain new hardware features over time’’. Not only will the phone be taking a stab at modularity, it is also said to have a large bezel-less display.

The exciting part is actually the modular feature of the phone. According to the description provided, the phone will have a proprietary magnetic connector that serves as a way to charge the phone and also works as a way of expanding the phone’s functionality. So we might be looking at hardware add-ons that attach to the charging port.

Although the company is working on a spherical camera module that shoots high resolution 360° images, the phone will support modules from third parties too.

A prototype of the phone is said to have a display that is bigger than that of the iPhone 7 Plus but has a smaller form factor thanks to its lack of bezels. A similar design can be seen in the Xiaomi Mi MIX. The large display and small size is not the only way the device is similar to Xiaomi’s phone, as it is said to also have a ceramic back. There is also a chance that the display might be pressure sensitive.

READ MORE: LG Confirms That The LG G6 Won’t Be Modular

Rumored to be out by the middle of the year and mass manufactured by Foxconn, the Essential phone is expected to be priced in the same range as Google’s Pixel and the new iPhones. There is no word on what OS the phone will run on but the bet is on it being Android.

Are you excited about a new modular phone?

(Source)

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Elephone has one unique device – the S3. The main selling points of this phone are its bezel-less design and affordable price. This is Linus, find out if this phone is any good in our full review.

Thanks to Elephone.cc Shop for sending Elephone S3 for a review. 

Elephone S3 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

Elephone S3 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships in quite a premium hard plastic box and the contents of the packaging include some paperwork, SIM ejector pin, a charging brick and a nice tangle-free USB cable.

Elephone S3 Review: SPECS

Elephone S3 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

Elephone S3 stands out from the crowd of affordable devices due to its bezel-less display. I have to tell you that it indeed looks great. However, the view on the very edges of the display is distorted quite a bit to make that bezel-less look but I’m okay with that.

The 5.2” 1080p LCD panel itself is great. It is sharp and crisp, and color reproduction is good.

We have a 5MP selfie shooter along with the non-customisable LED flash on the top and on-screen navigation buttons instead of capacitive ones.

Also, the phone sports all-metal design and superb flagship-grade build quality. The buttons are nice and tactile and the phone feels very nice in the hand.

We have a 13MP Sony camera coupled with a single LED flash. Right below the camera, there is a fingerprint scanner, which is accurate and recognizes a fingerprint from the standby mode. However, I found the display to respond slower than usual if you unlock the phone very quickly several times in a row.

The loudspeaker sits on the bottom and the sound quality is okay but as usual to the budget phones, the sound lacks depth.

Overall, I really love the top-notch build quality of the phone and the device looks great due to its bezel-less design.

Elephone S3 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, it is obvious that Elephone S3 is a budget device after all. It sports an octa-core MTK6753 chip (1.3GHz), 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

These specs will let you enjoy 3D games only if you play them on medium graphics. Still, you should expect occasional stutter and quite a few skipped frames. Also, the phone tends to get warm pretty quickly but does not overheat.

Elephone S3 Review: BENCHMARKS

Elephone S3 Review: USER INTERFACE

When it comes to the UI, we have a few options out of the box. You can either go with ELE launcher, which removed the app tray and has some redesigned icons or you can select a stock Android launcher for a more conventional look.

Either way, the phone runs on Android 6.0. We have some customization options like a baked-in theming engine, the ability to change the transition effects and so on.

Also, we have plenty of gesture controls that work fine. As usual, I just use a couple of them e.g. double tap to wake gesture.

Overall, the UI runs fast and fluid, and I just had a few minor hiccups over the time but you don’t need to worry about that.

Elephone S3 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

The image quality is kind of a disappointment. The main issues are with soft and uneven focus throughout the image. That means that most of the images will not look good.

Some decent looking macro shots are possible but again, they could look better.

The low-light camera performance does not impress and the images look darker than in reality, there is quite a bit of noise and low amount of detail.

A 5MP selfie shooter will do the trick will social media but again, there is a lack of detail in most of the shots.

The video quality is okay in general but the main issue here is aggressive auto color shifting once you move the camera. See a video review for a video sample.

Elephone S3 Review: CONNECTIVITY

As for connectivity, I don’t have any complaints as everything has been working fine. However, the GPS lock speeds could be slightly faster.

Elephone S3 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The phone ships with just 2100mAh battery and it is one of the weakest points of this device. I could get just over 2 hours of screen-on time on a mixed use. Also, the phone tends to drain quite a bit of power on standby. Hopefully, Elephone improves the power management in the future software updates.

Elephone S3 Review: CONCLUSIONS

Elephone S3 tries to stand out from the crowd of the budget smartphones and it delivers in certain ways.

Its bezel-less design, sharp display and top-notch (or even flagship-grade) build quality are the best aspects of this phone.

Also, we have the UI, which has some nice customization options and it runs fast most of the times.

However, the gaming performance could be better, the camera does not impress and the battery life is disappointing.

All in all, we should applaud Elephone’s effort trying to stand out from the crowd but we also have to say that this phone delivers in some ways but falls short in quite a few departments.

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Ulefone has been in the market for the past couple of years and in this time, we have seen some value for money devices from the company. Recently, Ulefone teased its latest flagship in the market, namely the Ulefone Future, which claimed to come with a bezel-less design. Given that a small time Chinese company is making such a big claim, we all were a bit skeptical whether the final product would be anywhere close to bezel-less. Now, after visiting their booth at MWC 2016, it looks like, yes, the Ulefone Future is indeed bezel-less.

The company seems to have kept the design quite simple on the Ulefone Future. The phone is indeed bezel-less with zero visible borders. This makes the display stand out pretty well and therefore, the front looks good. All the buttons are located on the right side of the phone. So, you have the volume keys as well as the power button on that side. You even get a side mounted fingerprint sensor on the same side, which is placed perfectly for your thumb. On the left side, you have the SIM card slots.

Coming to the back, it’s pretty plain. This is the company’s first unibody metal smartphone, and it has decided to keep things simple. You don’t even find a Ulefone branding at the back, but that’s because this is not the final commercial unit. The 16MP camera and the dual LED dual tone flash lies on the top left corner at the back. Finally, coming to the bottom, you can see dual speaker slots, but we are still not sure whether thy are just there for a symmetric design or if there are indeed two speakers on board. In between, you will find the USB Type-C port.

The company is marketing the Ulefone Future as a powerful flagship. It features the Helio P10 MT6755 chipset inside with 4GB RAM and 32GB of storage. The phone will be running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS right out fo the box.

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Here’re the Ulefone Future specs Summary:

• 5.5-inch 2.5D Bezel-less display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
• Helio P10 (MT6755) True Octa-Core CPU @2.0GHz
• Mali-T860 MP2 GPU
• 4GB LPDDR3 RAM
• 32GB Internal Storage
• 16MP Rear camera with dual-LED (dual tone) flash
• 8MP Front Camera
• 3000mAh battery
• Side Mounted Fingerprint sensor
• USB Type-C
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow Version

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We have all heard that Letv has made a lot of hype about its bezel less smartphones, which not only have a great design, premium materials but also some amazing specs. All that comes with an amazing price tag as well!

In case you missed it, we have already reviewed the Letv One S1 and despite a few shortcomings, which will most likely be fixed via software updates, it turns out to be one of the best deals for your money.

All you need to know in the Letv Le 1 (One/S1/X600) video review:

The specs sheet is indeed very good for a price and I have personally tested this device out, and can assure that performs very well in real life scenarios.

The powerful chip along with 3GB of RAM is a combination you can trust when it comes even to the most demanding tasks like 3D gaming or 4K footage playback or recording.

However, there are some issues in the video recording department, but as I’ve said earlier, there are some high chances that it will be fixed with a software update soon. I may produce a follow-up video on that.

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There has been a lot of hype about the upcoming LeTV “Superphones”, which are manufactured by the “Netflix of China” video services streamer. The company invested quite a lot for all the marketing and the CEO was not shy either by calling Apple an innovation Nazi. All the hype made many consumers interested in this newcomer and the Super Le Smartphones are on sale. Well, kind of.

We usually talk about the Xiaomi and their flash sales strategy. This time around, the LeTV smartphones went officially went on sale today and…. 200.000 units were gone in a blink of an eye! LeTV One Pro (2499 Yuan or around $400) was sold out in 1 second, LeTV One – in 3 minutes and 46 seconds! Previously, the company announced that there was a huge interest in their devices as there were more than 10 million users, who “reserved” a phone. Well, all we can say that the demand is extremely high!

It is also worth mentioning that LeTV has finally revealed the official price of the 6.33 inch giant phablet flagship – LeTV One Max. It will cost 3599 Yuan (around $580) in China. The online reservations for the Chinese customers have already started at 2 PM today and the open sale will start on June 12th at 12:00. However, due to the high demand the same story may repeat and the device may be sold out in a matter of seconds. This keeps us wondering of the point of the reservation system.

However, there is a catch. The above mentioned pricing is only for the limited number of the devices. On the other hand, the final retail price will be decided by “Referendum” (most likely online voting or something similar) at the beginning of June. That means that the price may go lower.

It seems that the LeTV takes some marketing clues from the Xiaomi and uses the flash sales tactics. At least for now. Another similarity is that they sell their devices almost at  the cost (the company even disclosed BOM – Bill of Materials). However, the main point of LeTV’s strategy seems that they have a different primary focus – they want to sell services rather than hardware. Well, for now we are not interested in their services portfolio as they are Chinese-oriented. Still, we are very interested in the hardware and we cannot wait to see how the package of beautiful design and killer specs performs in real life scenarios. We cannot wait to provide you with the full review treatment of Le “Superphones” as soon as they land in our offices.

It seems that the resellers have already started picking LeTV devices up. As usual, the reseller prices are higher than in China, but still you get a killer device for a decent price. Merimobiles seem to be offering the lowest prices for now.

You can pre-order LeTV One Pro 32GB Version for $499 , LeTV One Pro 64GB Version for $549.99 , LeTV One Pro 128GB Version for $599.99. Also, you can pre-order LeTV One Max 64GB Version for $699.

In the mean time, what do you think, are LeTV smartphones worth the hype? Will they be killer devices in real life? Let us know in the comments section.

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LeTV has been on the news lately with its futuristic looking bezel less smartphone or “super phone”, which is said not to only have the amazing looks, but also be the beast of phone. Also, there should some other great stuff just around the corner as the Chinese company was not too shy to mock even at Apple, calling it “Innovation Nazi”. Of course, this is the part of the marketing as the company wants to get the international media attention, but we hope to see some great products unveiled very soon.

It looks like LeTV has finally confirmed its official event, which will be held on April 14th in Beijing. However, the company did not officially reveal what will take a part of the presentation in just two weeks. Still, as all the rumours and leaks suggest, we expect to see the “super” bezel less smartphone, a new “super” TV and some other new products.

We presume that LeTV will release a high-end (X900) and lower-end (X600) smartphones, which will be designed for different categories of users, respectively.

From before the exposure of the case, the music, as the two products were released, a high distribution (X900), a low distribution (X600), respectively, for different users.

The X900 is expected to be a beast of the smartphone as it will reportedly be powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor, will use a 2K resolution display. What is more, it is said to use 4GB of RAM, which is more than 3GB found on the latest flagships (except the one on Asus Zenfone 2, which is not really a true flagship overall). Moreover, device will spot a 20.7 MP rear camera (most likely Sony sensor). Finally, the body will be made of premium metal materials.

The X600 model is not that beast, but still shapes up to be a pretty good offering. It is said to be made out of the plastic body. Under the hood there will be a MT6795 processor, 1080p display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Also, there will be a 13 MP camera on the back.

Finally, one of the most things that gets us excited about the Chinese phones is that they usually come in lower prices than devices offered by major players. It is said that the lower-end smartphone will cost just 999 Yuan, while a high-end “super” bezel less smartphone will cost 2499 Yuan.

We cannot wait to see what LeTV has in its portfolio. Stay tuned to Gizmochina as we will cover all the upcoming news.

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It has become quite popular nowadays to produce the smartphones with thin bezels. Year after year, companies try to reduce both side, up and down bezels as much as possible. It may not be practical at all since the screen becomes prone to damage if the device is dropped. Also, it is not practical as you can just simply cover part of the screen and leave your fingerprint there. Still, devices like Meizu MX4, which has really thin bezels set the standard for what seems to be really trendy today despite the lack of practicality. This is all for the sake of good looks and probably for the sake of bragging. Both, for the companies, which produce these devices and for the end users.

But what about the bezeless device? Meet the Subor S3, the world’s first smartphone, which has no side bezels. The company officially describes it as “The worlds first dual-4G smartphone without bezels”.

The S3 is equipped with a 5inch 720p screen, it has the body size of 141.5 × 70.3 × 7.8 mm. In addition to this, this phone is equipped with the MTK6732 quad-core chip and it is running Android 4.4 OS. What is more, the device has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage space (expandable via Micro SD card slot). The whole package is powered by 1700mAh capacity battery and 8-megapixel camera on the back with the f/2.0 aperture and another 8MP unit on the front.

Moreover, the Subor S3’s body is covered by the dual Gorilla Glass 3’s (one on the front and another on the back). Also, the device will be available in Black and White colour options. Finally, it is priced at 1399 Yuan and it is now on sale in China. International availability is unknown, but it should be available via international resellers pretty soon.

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The competition in practically every segment of the smartphone market is becoming fierce. At first, manufacturers were obsessed with the slimness of their smartphones, hence we have seen super slim devices like the Vivo X5 Max, OPPO R5 and even the new Gionee Elife S7 4.6mm.

Now, looks like manufacturers are focusing on yet another area of a smartphone – bezels. Over the past two years, the bezel size on smartphones have reduced to a great extent. Just yesterday we received more details about the Serendipity S7 which claimed to feature the narrowest bezels (0.7mm) in the industry. Now, yet another smartphone manufacturer has come up with a phone with practically zero bezels. We don’t have much details about the phone maker but the Subor S3 ‘s listing has revealed some of its specs.

First of all, the Subor S3 will come with a 5-inch 720p display with ultra narrow bezels. Its so thin that we can say that the phone is nearly bezel-less. Inside, there will be Mediatek’s MT6732 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and 16GB of expandable memory. The phone features dual camera module, however the company has not yet revealed the resolution on both the front and the rear shooters. The Subot S3 will support the high speed 4G LTE networks along with standard 3G and GSM networks. It will run on Google’s Android 4.4 KitKat OS.

Also, the image on the website reveals that the phone will cost 1399 Yuan which comes to around $223.99. That’s a decent price for a phone with these features and super slim bezels.

Unfortunately, this is all we know about the device. No details on the battery, camera resolutions or even LTE frequencies are known at the moment. However, like the Serendipity S7, expect some more details in a few weeks time.

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