Our fixation with smartphone “chins” has to stop

 
So it wasn’t so much that notches were terrible, it was just that there was so little else to not be happy with when it comes to smartphones (besides the constant need for longer battery life) that people fixated on that one small issue way more than necessary.

We all knew that the notch wouldn’t be around for long (you hear that, Apple?) and that companies will be quick to come up with alternative designs. While it will take a while more for the notch to disappear from all models, plenty of flagship smartphones are already offering bezel-less displays. If you found the use of the word “bezel-less” inappropriate for the devices we have today, you’re exactly the reason for this article.

Still a millimeter away from perfection

With notches replaced by punch holes or motorized pop-up cameras, we’re left with even less to nitpick about when it comes to smartphone looks (besides those pesky moving parts). But less doesn’t mean none at all, and some users have taken their demands to another level. The focus has shifted from the notch to another element: the bottom bezel. Despite engineers working tirelessly in R&D facilities all over the world to shave off as much as possible from the so-called “chin” of smartphones, their efforts aren’t met with the recognition they deserve. Quite the opposite, actually. Every time there’s a discussion about an existing or an upcoming phone’s design, there’s inevitably at least one person that says something along the lines of “the bottom bezel needs to be thinner” or “that chin is still too thick” when in fact it’s barely a millimeter or two thicker than the side or top bezels of the phone. Sure, there are cases in which the chin is objectively big for 2019 standards, but in some models it’s thickness is negligible.