Apple wasn't first to introduce the notch design, but apparently, it won't be the last, as other phone manufacturers race to make the perfect iPhone X clone. Asus, OnePlus, and Huawei are just some of the companies joining the bandwagon, yet some others are deciding not to.
Enter Doogee, a little-known but slowly emerging manufacturer that makes cheap bezel-less handsets. Its latest, the Mix 4, continues its portfolio of phones with extremely thin bezels, but with a twist.
The Notch Design
The problem with trying to make bezels really thin is that designers have to find a way to relocate crucial components that typically sit on the upper bezel, including the earpiece, the front-facing camera, and a bunch of sensors. That's why some manufacturers still need the notch. With its concept phone Apex, Vivo has a clever solution: hide the front-facing camera. A little nub pops out of the phone when the user wants to take a selfie and goes back to its compartment when not in use. For the earpiece, meanwhile, it uses complex vibration-based technology to produce sound.
There are a couple of potential problems with that design, though. For starters, a user might drop the phone while the selfie camera is out, potentially damaging it. Also, the vibration technology might not be as clear as a conventional earpiece. It's an excellent concept, sure, but it also highlights the challenges of designing a phone that's almost all-screen.
Doogee Mix 4
The Mix 4 doesn't have a slide-out camera or a vibration-based earpiece. It actually has all the essentials on the upper bezel — only the upper bezel is hidden. Imagine that there are two phones. Now, stack them on top of each other. The upper phone is just a screen with extremely minimal bezels. The lower phone houses all the essentials — internals, cameras, sensors, and everything else. The lower part slides out when, say, one needs to make or receive a call or snap a selfie. It's an ingenious design reminiscent of the HTC 7 Surround, which features a slide-out bottom half that contains a speaker and kickstand.
The Mix 4 isn't technically bezel-less, though: it still has a tiny wrap-around bezel, but it still boasts an incredible 97 percent screen-to-body ratio. Arun Maini, also known by his YouTube channel Mrwhosetheboss, revealed the phone for the first time in a just-released video, showing the device's extremely tiny bezels.
There's no word yet on when the Mix 4 will be released. The device in the video is a non-functional prototype dummy model. For now, details are very thin, but Doggee told Maini that it plans to put a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in there.
