Goodbye bezel? PC makers working on borderless screens

Samsung N120 with speakers built into the bezel

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time writing about computers, it’s that people love to complain about notebooks and tablets with unusually large bezels around the screen. On some systems, such as the Asus Eee PC 701, the bezel makes sense, since the only way to provide a reasonably large keyboard with a 7 inch screen is to pad the space on the sides of the display. But on other models, there’s no good excuse for the black bars that border the display.

DigiTimes reports that a number of Taiwanese PC makers have heard your complaints, and they’re working on slim notebooks with “frameless” screens. The report says Foxconn, Compal, and Quanta are all working on frameless screens.

The article isn’t 100% clear on what constitutes a frameless screen. While I’d like to think we’re talking about displays with no bezels at all, it’s also possible that these ODMs are simply working on displays that feature edge-to-edge glass that sits over a bezel. You know, kind of like the screens HP has been using on some of its mini-laptops for the past year or so.

via Netbooked

Posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010, 12:41 pm by Brad Linder

ossi

If it is that edge to edge glass then I am disappointed. But if it really is almost borderless screen then it's great. In my opinion eee pc 701 went wrong with big bezel. The keyboard is too small to really touch type but too big for thumb typing. And seems that everun note is smaller but using odd layout they managed to make bigger keyboard. And also everun note would fit my jacket pocket.
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pauli

i am all for slaying… THE BEZEL MONSTER!
http://www.bnsofts.com/ Bnsofts

I wuld like at least some bezel, edge to edge seems risky.
JK

So taking this at face value (which is a stretch), when I accidentally hit the top of my netbook against something, it's potentially not going to hit bezel, but instead hit an actual display. Hrm, might want to reconsider this.

Far be it for me to inject some thought here, but there seems to be only one functional reason why you would want to “eliminate” a bezel and go edge-to-edge on a display: if you wanted to put two displays right next to each other and have it as close to seamless as possible.

For example, consider the OLPC dual-display design, which unfortunately is defunct because most people apparently couldn't grasp the possibilities. You have'd a lower touch screen which operated as a virtual keyboard, but if you wanted, you could open the thing up and use both screens in combination to form one large display. Obviously, no bezel here would be preferable.

Until then, this just seems like more crap the boneheaded netbook fans are asking for, for no real reason.
Corinn

I only get annoyed when the bezel is so huge they could have easily put a larger screen in. The N120 isn't really one of these cases–an 11.6″ display still wouldn't have fit.

But Asus's N10J has such an enormous bezel and an 11.6″ display would easily fit inside. The Alienware M11x's bezel is positively enormous, and it's oddly shaped, making the whole system look awkward and ugly. The lid looks designed to hold a 16:10 1280×800 12.1″ display instead of a 16:9 1366×768 11.6″ display (and really it should be the former).
JK

What is your criteria for judging if something can “easily” be done?

For example, the EEE PC 701 had a huge bezel which people complained about. So they had options. They could “easily” have put a larger screen in there, at greater cost (remember, it was released in 2007), or they could “easily” have made the rest of the device smaller, like around Umid size, again, at greater cost.

And for what?

“Because it looks ugly.”

Great.
Corinn

I only get annoyed when the bezel is so huge they could have easily put a larger screen in. The N120 isn't really one of these cases–an 11.6″ display still wouldn't have fit.

But Asus's N10J has such an enormous bezel and an 11.6″ display would easily fit inside. The Alienware M11x's bezel is positively enormous, and it's oddly shaped, making the whole system look awkward and ugly. The lid looks designed to hold a 16:10 1280×800 12.1″ display instead of a 16:9 1366×768 11.6″ display (and really it should be the former).
JK

What is your criteria for judging if something can “easily” be done?

For example, the EEE PC 701 had a huge bezel which people complained about. So they had options. They could “easily” have put a larger screen in there, at greater cost (remember, it was released in 2007), or they could “easily” have made the rest of the device smaller, like around Umid size, again, at greater cost.

And for what?

“Because it looks ugly.”

Great.

Goodbye bezel? PC makers working on borderless screens

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