The Chinese manufacturer wants to eliminate every bezel from smartphones, creating a device covered entirely by OLED displays. Here’s what it will look like
One of the features that distinguish a top-of-the-line smartphone from a mid-range or low-cost one is certainly the size of the display bezels: the thinner they are, the more valuable the device. Also because less bezels means more screen.
The spasmodic race to the full screen display, however, in recent years has had to clash with a physical limit: the presence of the camera and the many sensors that today are integrated on the front of a smartphone. Even the most “full screen” screen on the market must still carve out at least a space for one or more photo sensors. And that’s why the notch was invented, the drop that interrupts the screen to accommodate these sensors. Xiaomi, however, has just obtained from the WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Office (in practice a kind of global patent office, an agency under the United Nations), the approval of some patents that could change everything.
The smartphone full surround
Already with the prototype Mi Mix Alpha, Xiaomi had surprised everyone, showing a surround screen that extended to the sides and back, interrupted only by a strip that houses three cameras. But these patents go further, much further: the smartphone is totally enveloped by the screen, which occupies all the front, side and rear space. And the cameras? Integrated under the screen, all of them. The patents, unfortunately, do not clearly describe the product but focus mainly on the user interface, necessarily very different from that of a traditional smartphone. What is certain, however, that this device has the top and bottom metal where are placed, respectively, the speaker and microphone and the input for charging. That’s why this device is defined as “full surround”.
The limits of full surround
Let’s be clear: we’re talking about patents and not about a product that will soon be on the market. Also because there are still many doubts about such a device. The first concerns the flash: the integration of photo sensors under the screen is technically difficult but possible, but where will they put the flash? Another doubt: how fragile will such a device be, made almost entirely of glass and with very little metal in the body? Finally: forget about the SIM and the memory expansion slot. A device like this will only be able to use eSIMs and will not have expandable memory.