I hope the Google Pixel 2 has smaller bezels

During these years, bezels are always the pursone of the phones. While our smartphones have been adopting bigger and bigger touchscreens, the bezels have maintained the necessary parts under the hood to house a variety of different physical buttons and parts. But as technology has advanced, one of the things that has been called out are those bezels.

We’ve watched as the bezels on the sides of phones have been reduced quite a bit over the years. Samsung, for instance, has managed to make full use of curved displays and get rid of the bezel on at least one side altogether. The “Edge” phones have given us a direct look at what phones will look like without bezels, and it seems that people are ready to adopt that future now.

So perhaps it’s not too surprising that we’ve got the Galaxy S8 on the way, and Samsung’s ready to keep shaking things up in the design department.

It’s safe to say that Samsung’s design history for its smartphones (and tablets) hasn’t always seen a ton of praise. Form golf ball-like dimples, plastic phones, and more, many had been asking more out of the company. When the Galaxy S6 lineup arrived, the company delivered, and they immediately saw quite a bit of positive feedback. The Galaxy S7 refined a few things, and the Galaxy Note 7 was awarded for its physical design (for as long as it could be).

Samsung is reinforcing that design language with the upcoming Galaxy S8, if the rampancy of leaked photos are any indication. More than that, though, the company is drastically reducing the bezels on the upcoming smartphone. The curved display is present on both sides, and the bezels above and below the screen are remarkably smaller than what’s been seen on previous handsets.

LG reduced the bezels on its recent flagship, the G6, too, but not nearly to the same degree as Samsung. (Or what Apple is expected to do with the iPhone 8.)

I’ve seen a lot of comments on Twitter saying they’d love to see stock Android on the hardware being shown off for the oft-rumored Galaxy S8, and I’ve got to say that I wholeheartedly agree with those desires. I love the Google Pixel, especially that camera, but one of the more eye-catching elements of the phone’s front are the huge bezels above and below the screen.

The side bezels aren’t necessarily all that bad, but the ones on the top and bottom are pretty extreme. (And yes, this is something I adamantly want Apple to change, too.)

We already know that Google plans on launching a Pixel 2 this year, and that it will be a “premium device,” so I’m sure Google has something exciting to show off, but I can’t help but hope that, if there’s any one thing that the company changes, it’s the reduction of those bezels.

If history is any indicator, that probably won’t be the case. The safest bet at this point is that the Pixel 2 will have a similar physical design to the original smartphone it’s replacing, with a few minor/major tweaks/additions to help sell the handset. We’ll probably have to wait until 2018 to see a “radical” design change.

Or, maybe Google will surprise all of us and come out swinging with a brand new design, one that reduces those bezels, and looks just as stunning as the Galaxy S8. One can hope! How about you? Do you hope of all the changes Google makes with the Pixel 2, reduced bezels is one of the new additions? Let me know!