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Laptop bezels are dead, and IFA killed them
In the past few years, IFA has become a laptop show. It may not be the place where companies like Apple or Microsoft show off their flashiest hardware, but when it comes to the midrange, workhorse laptops that dominate the shelves at Best Buy and desks at schools, IFA is where you'll find them. That's why it's so interesting that there's been what feels like an overnight revolution in laptop screens at this year's show: bezels are dead, and IFA killed them.
[...] These new laptops are pushing the screen-to-body ratio higher than ever: the Swift 5 is 87.6 percent screen, while the newly teased Swift 7 checks in at 92 percent. And Asus' ZenBooks feature a new ErgoLift hinge design, which is (in theory) to improve typing, but it also cleverly hides the lower bezel so that Asus can claim it's up to 95 percent screen.
Removing bezels isn't just about aesthetics. Yes, bezel-less screens look fantastic, but that's only a piece of the puzzle. The real advantages lie in the fact that, suddenly, companies can fit bigger screens into the existing form factors we have now. Take Acer's new Swift 5, which fits a 15.6-inch display into the old 14-inch form factor, resulting in what the company claims is the lightest 15-inch class laptop ever. On the flip side, we're also getting computers like Asus' 13-inch ZenBook. By killing the bezels, it's possible to shrink the entire laptop down, giving users a dramatically smaller 13-inch class laptop than ever before.
Related: Dell XPS 13 Review
What Are Must-Have Specs for a Laptop in 2017?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Arik on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:57AM (6 children)
Of course not, everything these companies do is about economics.
Aesthetics only becomes important insofar as they affect spending.
"Yes, bezel-less screens look fantastic"
No, they look like shit.
How about this, instead of bigger screens, how about usable keyboards and usable software?
Nah, let's squeeze another fraction of a nominal inch out of the display size stat instead, much easier and quicker, leaves the afternoon free for hookers and blow.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday September 02 2018, @12:37PM (4 children)
Why? The smaller bezels have nothing to do with the quality of keyboards, other than affecting their physical size (which you could increase by going to the next size up, 14, 15.6, 17.3).
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday September 03 2018, @05:49AM (3 children)
To my eye, the lack of bezel is visually annoying (perhaps much as are "flat" interfaces). There's no boundary between the screen and what's around it. Needs a minimum of about 1/3 inch to be comfortable.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 03 2018, @07:35AM (2 children)
I'm looking at the wall behind my laptop right now. I could carefully place a piece of black cardboard on the wall.
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(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday September 03 2018, @11:29AM (1 child)
You could, and it might be perfectly feasible at your own desk, but is that convenient to haul around with you?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 03 2018, @11:38AM
I keep a laptop at the desk pretty much at all times. It's pretty much just an easier to move desktop.
I don't believe in the bezel premise anyway. None of these laptops have advertised a 100% screen, 0% bezel ratio, so there should still be a small border around the content in most cases (unless they hide it all near the hinge). Even if there wasn't, I think I could adapt to it. The screen is emitting photons at you, so it should overpower the surroundings.
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @02:20AM
Not surprising you wouldn't care about that, given your preference for using a monospaced font like it's 1983.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @10:05AM (3 children)
For multiple monitors the thinner bezel would be nice, maybe. But I care about that less with a laptop. In fact, a little extra bezel might just save the screen if it happens to drop on edge. I think I'd rather have a normal bezel and a matte screen.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Sunday September 02 2018, @03:46PM (1 child)
I fixed this problem 20 years ago when I decided to not drop my laptop. Been working for me ever since.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @08:44PM
Now you've done it. Laptop falling / screen cracking in 10, 9, 8....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 03 2018, @04:10AM
I like small enough to be portable laptops (I have an 11.6" netbook at home).
My work just got me a Dell XPS-13. The thing fits in the same case as my netbook, but the screen is quite a bit larger. Since 11.6" with-bezel netbook has the smallest keyboard I would want to type on, the 13" no bezel Dell is just about perfect. Itwas way too expensive to buy personally, though.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @10:05AM (4 children)
I often grab my thinkpad 410 by the upper bezel, which gets thicker up to around 8mm on its upper edge, handy. I don't notice being on a 14" laptop when i switch from a 15" so thinning the bezel for a 15.x is surely not going to even register here.
Designers don't know how their products will be used. What about the laptops with the ac input on the opposite side of vga? I cannot keep them vertical (half opened like a book, taking up a fraction of the horizontal desktop surface) and attached to a screen and AC at the same time.
What about italian laws preventing me to use an mp3 of a lawfully bought cd without paying 300 eur/year for a dj license, so that I better have an integrated cd reader in $CURRENT_YEAR? A modular laptop, even if it's 2 inches thick, would be great for me.
But manufacturer fail the simpler things too. Insufficient USB ports, crammed close to one another, the classic.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:57AM
Doesn't *everyone* has a USB-C dock running two huge monitors, keyboard, mouse, and any other peripherals (ac out, mic, phone charging, etc etc)
Laptops are for taking to meetings and looking important. Looks (therefore bezels) matter when you're all sitting around a table pretending to care about what anyone else is saying..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday September 02 2018, @08:30PM (1 child)
One workaround is to find employment elsewhere in the Schengen area.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:13PM
> One workaround is to find employment elsewhere in the Schengen area.
more than a workaround it looks like the nuclear option.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday September 02 2018, @10:07PM
I think this is the problem in a nutshell, for a lot more than just laptops.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:56AM (6 children)
The real advantage of slimmer bezels is that the devices are flimsier and much easier to break, so there is a bigger market for replacements.
It is possible that some people (and a lot of robots) think they look sexy, but if you think laptops and phone look sexy, you need to look deeply into your soul and see if your diode based logic doesn't need to be upgraded to modern FPGAs.
Some people (which means human beings) actually USE computers and even phones, to do useful things. I seriously question whether selfie obsessed nutters are actually human, and
I am reasonably confident that the reviews which promote slim phones with glass backs and no bezel are written by shills (who, like trolls, live under bridges in remote and probably mythical parts of Scandinavia, and are known to be only partly human).
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:46PM
I use computers to get real work done, with the occasional goof off break. When I'm working, I don't notice anything about the computer. It's just a tool for getting something done.
It's like the people who think the fastest way to learn to play the guitar is by buying a bunch of effects pedals.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:05PM
If you need a Toughbook or other rugged laptop, you should get one. Otherwise you shouldn't be dropping or breaking your laptop, or you should have a $100 laptop that you can destroy without regretting it.
No/tiny bezel does not mean that it has to be weak. It can use toughened glass (e.g. Gorilla Glass) and aluminum for the frame instead of plastic.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:15PM (2 children)
> and a lot of robots) think they look sexy
No, they are indecent. What's next, the cpu in plain sight? COVER UP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SHORTED.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday September 03 2018, @04:15AM (1 child)
I may be strange but I think a lap made of clear acrylic would be cool. Not cool enough to sacrifice functionality but still. I'd also say the same thing about a car. It would be cool to see an IC engine running at speed, the pistons and crank shaft etc. but again not cool enough to sacrifice performance or safety.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday September 09 2018, @09:30PM
Well for the IC engine, I guess it would not stay clear for long and very exotic materials would be needed.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday September 04 2018, @02:35AM
It's actually kind of funny, since bezels actually got thicker after the 2000's. My Thinkpad R60 from about 2006 has a thinner bezel than most any laptop that came after it (not counting the ones in the article of course). Part of it is due to the 4:3 screen - people seem to say that widescreen is better for laptops. Perhaps 4:3 is a tad on a the tall side, but with widescreen you end up having to letterbox the screen into the lid because it's actually too short. This actually kind of works out because that means there is a place to stick the ubiquitous camera but the end result is a thicker bezel. The thicker bezels is also one reason why modern laptops seem a class size larger compared to the laptops of yesteryear - for example the current crop of 15" laptops really don't feel much smaller than the 17" laptops from a decade ago.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ShadowSystems on Sunday September 02 2018, @12:06PM (6 children)
I want a laptop not a "T&L" aka Calvin Klein anorexia victim.
A desktop class, unthrottled, devours tasks like the Cookie Monster through a box of Oreo's, CPU.
Not one of those "ultra low voltage" whimpy ones that turns the chassis into a kiln because I stupidly decided to read my email.
Full sized ports, lots of them, & spaced far enough apart so I can actually use them all at the same time.
That means at least four (4) USB3.0TypeA for all my current USB devices, then & only then can you add USB3.1TypeC ports to the mix.
A full sized gigabit ethernet (RJ45) port, not a mini nor via dongle.
An SD card reader so I don't have to hunt down a dongle/dedicated SD reader to do the job.
A full sized, mechanical keyboard with number pad, dedicated arrow keys, & the "six pack" above it.
If your keyboard involves words like "chicklet", "butterfly", or "efficiency" then you can cram it right up your ass.
It needs to have user replaceable/upgradeable hard drives/SSD, RAM, & modular Field Replaceable Units for things like the wireless, the GPU, etc.
If it's soldered on the motherboard then you can solder it right up your ass.
It needs a user replaceable/swappable battery so I can tell the unit to suspend, eject the flat battery, slap in a full one, & wake the unit back up again without any loss of data.
If you MUST include a webcam then put it at the top of the screen so it doesn't point up our nose, include a physical cover so we can make *sure* it can't spy on us, and give us the ability to disable the entire webcam subsystems so we don't feel as paranoid about its inclusion.
If you include microphones so it can utilize Bixby/Curtana/Siri/Amazon/etc, then put a sound defeating cover over them so we can be sure it's not listening to us when we don't want it to be, & let us deactivate the entire mic subsystem so we feel less paranoid about the whole thing.
This is not a T&L machine, this is a laptop designed for people whom need a *REAL* laptop.
Not a power starved, CPU throttling, dongles required for everything because you shaved out all the ports, so stupidly light it feels like a wafer thin mint in our hands.
"But you can use a docking station, plug it into the USB3.1TypeC port, & have every port you need!"
Fuck you. I didn't want you to remove them in the first place, I'm not about to pay extra for that "feature" and then again for the bits I need to replace those functions.
"But then buy a workstation."
Why, because you've turned every other model into a T&L pile of crap?
Fuck you. I want a *real* laptop to be the default, not one I have to special order for three times the price.
"You could always get a gaming laptop..."
Yeah, and monkies might fly out my ass.
What part of "real laptop" did you not understand?
I've got work to do, I need a machine I can use at work; I don't game on a laptop & can't take such a machine to work.
See my rants about ports & requiring a full desktop class CPU instead of the "ultra low voltage" power starved & throttled capacities for why.
"You could always plug in a USB desktop keyboard..."
Why should I have to?
If you had included a full sized *real* keyboard in the first place I'd have no need to plug in a second one.
Which would then require a full sized USB3.0TypeA port to plug in which your T&L would make me buy a dongle or docking station to get.
Plugging in an external keyboard would also mean using even MORE space on a desktop in order to fit it between me & the machine.
Good luck trying that on the bus, train, or plane.
But then WTF do I know, I'm just a guy that wants a real laptop that I can use to Get Shit Done, not some T&L piece of shit that requires a bag full of accessories to replace all the lost functionality.
*Double handed TheFinger to the T&L device makers*
(Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Sunday September 02 2018, @02:53PM (1 child)
This is why I always recommend "business class" laptops and desktops. Consumer class machines, like you might find at Walmart, have always had dumb mis-features, the cheapest construction, the least level of support, and come loaded with crapware.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:43PM
exactly. Go for the business class ones. And remember you need to pay for it :D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @03:55PM
yes and homer wanted wings on the car his brother let him design. :)
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:19PM
I need to be able to shave with my laptop.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Monday September 03 2018, @06:02AM
Yep on all counts. In short, "Why should I have to lug around all this other junk to achieve the functionality that used to be built right into my laptop?"
IMO the race to sexy is mostly in fact units per pound of air freight. Weight is money, both in shipping and raw materials, so they don't spend any more weight than they absolutely have to, and convince us that lighter and thinner is more sexy. Bah.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday September 09 2018, @09:43PM
the market is open for a case computer. On the upper half you fit an all in one PC minus transformer, on the lower half you fit keyboard, battery, transformer, space for pluggable external shit so you don't have it dangling around, some space for normal things you would carry like documents and bonus if you can fit an inkjet printer. You go to work you open the case you work you close the case you go home. Only a 1$ standard power cord would be needed which ideally would be retractable.
It's irrelevant to have a smaller thing when you carry it everywhere with a bag and accessories and spend time every day plugging and unplugging dongles and transformers.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday September 02 2018, @02:48PM (10 children)
I know everyone knows what "IFA" is from the fact that just about zero articles in the English-speaking press spell out what those letters stand for (because everybody already knows right? shakes head sadly), but just in case one or two people here and there don't know:
"IFA" stands for "Internationale Funkausstellung" which translated from German means, roughly, International Radio Exhibition [wikipedia.org].
I suspect that the designers and manufacturers rather played a larger role than TFS/TFA seems to grasp. But, hey, what do I know, I didn't even know what IFA stood for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @03:42PM (7 children)
Thank you for that. I googled and couldn't find anything except other articles about IFA and things like the International Fiscal Association.
I've never once heard IFA mentioned before anywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:52PM (6 children)
Quite likely, if you live in America. Foreign happenings are only covered in US media if strife is involved. Part of the strategy of fooling you that only the US is normal and livable.
The IFA is the world's preeminent consumer electronics show. Historically about receiving equipment, I am surprised that laptops steal the show now.
That said, I wonder why the organizers haven't Americanized the name yet. After all, only more than 100m people speak German, so we Germans should realize it is a dying language and just give up and assimilate to what US popular culture gets dumped on our land.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:23PM
The only people who watch US media are 55 years or older and that age is increasing.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:34PM (4 children)
I think you are rather missing the point. The Internationale Funkausstellung is being covered in the news [google.com] as well as any comparable event.
Unlike the CES or GDS or RSA, however, the initials don't spell out anything in English, the One True Language™ for most English-speakers, and so, pfft, who would care what they stand for? It's the "what does that stand for" that doesn't get covered (or even mentioned) in the English-language press coverage.
And who would care? Answer: Anyone who does not believe that there is only one world language. Which is not nearly as many people as you would hope.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 03 2018, @12:19AM
Thanks to the Internet, you can get global news now. If you are in the industry, the trade press should cover it. But I don't see mass media even cover the CES, let alone the IFA. There's been traditionally more coverage in popular European media; I heard of this years iteration via BBC world service.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday September 03 2018, @04:26AM (2 children)
Shouldn't be one world language, every culture should have a language to help preserve their identity and that which is unique. But having a common language, be it English or otherwise for commerce and trade is not a bad thing either. Being multi lingual is a good thing at any level. Is ASL or IS counted as a language ?
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday September 03 2018, @02:46PM (1 child)
An extension of this being that many cultures have as their language mutually comprehensible dialects or variants of the same language.
It seems that in most cultures, there is a two-to-three-language/dialect base comprised of:
Some examples:
Russia: Perhaps Russian-Russian-English
This gives a good base for seeing and making comparisons between cultures; a lens into other cultures and languages.
Contrast with monolingual areas:
This doesn't give a good base for seeing and making comparisons between cultures, nor any useful lens into other cultures and languages.
In such a situation, your press, for example, might whistle nervously while semi-believing "This abbreviation has no English expansion and therefore no meaningful expansion" and so failing to report on it. It might be very, very rare for members of your population to learn even a second language, much less a third or fourth; they might be determined that "the world should learn $MY_LANGUAGE so we can communicate" while ignoring the fact that learning a second or third language would enable that same communication.
It's not just language, but the cultural ideas behind it, that can enable and ease (or impede and prevent) communication and understanding.
Knowing more than one language (even if you don't know the language of the culture of who you're trying to communicate with) gives you skills that make that easier and more natural--because having made that bridge and used that lens once, you know how to do it in general and so you are more apt to be able to do it.
Learning either ASL or IS provides a basis for interpreting words and ideas more than "one true way" and therefore gives benefits just as learning any other language would. IS is a language, wide in understanding if limited in vocabulary; ASL is a fully-formed, expressive and complete language (or is it a dialect of English? The line can be blurry.).
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday September 03 2018, @09:02PM
Perhaps it is just my general location in the West/Southwest of the US but a lot of people speak Spanish here. Granted there are many localizations of Spanish depending on the country of origin but it is still a very commonly spoken tongue here. In my summer home in the SF east bay, you can commonly hear Tagalog, Korean, many dialects of Chinese, Vietnamese, and of course Spanish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
I speak English, I sign ASL, and get along in Caddo, and Spanish. Although speaking Caddo is difficult as many concepts in modern society just don't have a word or a place in the native tongue.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1) by hman on Tuesday September 04 2018, @01:04PM (1 child)
The IFA or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, a.k.a. 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. Between 1924 and 1939 it was an... [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday September 04 2018, @01:21PM
Of course not--you simply have to look somewhere other than the press coverage.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Sunday September 02 2018, @03:39PM (4 children)
I would honestly buy a rectangular box with bolted hinges and hard edges, before I'd buy any of these so-called "designer" laptops (and "designer" is a word I equate with cheap shit done in stupid ways with an expensive price-tag - think Apple... they are "designer", not "design").
Seriously. Give me a non-descript, boring, unmarked, rectangular box of a machine with the screen inside a decent-sized and solid bezel, hinges made of metal and bolted to it - we're already making aluminium-casings, so why faff about making them all curved and like shite anyway, it's not like it saves you any weight?
I don't want ANYTHING that's vulnerable sitting near an edge that can dent (ever dented an iPad metal case? Yeah, game over for the screen because no cushion between it and the outside). And if was a boring grey steel box, I'd actually think "That looks like it'll last" rather than "Oh, doesn't that look pretty".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:30PM (3 children)
If you cant break it / wear it out easily/quickly, you dont come back for another as soon. All part of planned-obsolescence and the throwaway mentality
Its sick, i agree, but its all part of their plan.
Sad when i have a 40 year old Kaypro that still works.. how many 10 year old 'modern' laptops still run.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:34PM (2 children)
My $100 Chromebook wipes the floor with your $4,000+ (adjusted for inflation) Kaypro. It's doubtful that the Kaypro will last even 10 times longer than the Chromebook.
Whining about planned obsolescence is passé. Computers are still significantly better after 5-10 years of improvements, and most can last at least 5 years without totally breaking.
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(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday September 03 2018, @01:23AM (1 child)
My Cr-48 original Chromebook test unit only lasted a little more than a year (touchpad failure+random failure to post/boot), and they aren't building them better and better with time, either.
FTFY. And get off my lawn.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by takyon on Monday September 03 2018, @01:40AM
If the $100 Chromebook died after a year, it would be worth it when compared to a $4000 machine lasting 40 years.
Mine is nearing 3 years, and I expect it will make it to at least 5-7 years. How would you know that they aren't building them better with time? And why would you compare a "test unit" to retail units? "The Cr-48 was intended for testing only, not retail sales." Your observation is not only an anecdote, it's irrelevant.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:27PM
With smaller batteries.
Bleh.
(Score: 1) by hman on Tuesday September 04 2018, @01:11PM
Just wondering. Wasn't the area behind the bezel the prime location for the Wifi antenna(s)?
Or am I outdated and modern Wifi doesn't need the bigger longer antenna for prime performance anymore?