Japanese electronics maker Sharp has revealed a new smartphone, the Aquos S2, that furthers the most dominant trend with modern smartphones: the death of the bezel.
Sharp
Sharp's Aquos S2, left, next to Apple's iPhone 7 Plus
In phone-speak, "bezels" are the borders around a smartphone's display. On the iPhone 7 Plus in the above photo, for instance, they're pretty sizable compared to those on the Aquos S2.
Over the past several months, however, various smartphone manufacturers have made it a point to shrink those borders. The idea is to make it so you have more display space for watching videos and playing games without lugging around a giant device.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi shrunk the bezels of its Mi Mix phone late last year, while the most recent flagships from Samsung and LG have helped put this sort of design in people's hands in the West. The first phone from Essential, a new startup led by Android co-creator Andy Rubin, looks set to eventually do the same. And if the rumor mill is to be believed, Apple's upcoming "iPhone 8" will follow suit.
Years before all of them, though, Sharp made the idea a reality with its Aquos Crystal phone. Its new Aquos S2 is only on sale in China as of this writing, and it's unlikely to ever make its way to the US. But with a starting price around $370, it shows what a more affordable tiny-bezel phone can look like.
Here's a closer look: