Why it matters to you
True bezel-less screens on smartphones are the future, and a new company is about to make its mark by introducing one.
The Xiaomi Mi Mix is one of the most striking smartphones we’ve seen in the last year or so, breaking from design convention and including technology we expect to see more of in the future. However, it’s not the only one looking to make a splash with an edge-to-edge display on a cutting-edge smartphone. Step forward, industry newcomer Maze, which has started teasing a phone called the Alpha.
We don’t know much about it at the moment, but we’re told the screen will stretch from edge to edge, and cover the majority of the front panel. It’s set to measure either 5.5 or 6 inches, and feature an AMOLED panel with Gorilla Glass 4 protecting it. The resolution isn’t known, but we’d expect it to be 1920 x 1080 pixels at the least.
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The teaser image shows a super thin bezel around the top and sides of the Alpha, much like the Mi Mix, and a view of the rear reveals a dual-lens camera next to a flash. No specifications for the camera are available, but we do know the sensors will come from Sony. Maze will use Android 7.0 Nougat as the Alpha’s operating system. We’re hoping it won’t have a heavy user interface over the top, and remain close to Google’s standard software. Maze is targeting Europe with the Alpha, and so far hasn’t mentioned releasing it in the United States, or how much the Alpha will end up costing.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hTFjj2_GQ8?feature=oembed&w=100&h=100]
How long will we have to wait to see the Alpha? Surprisingly, not that long. Maze intends to have the phone on sale in April. That’s not a final date, and because this is a new phone from a new company, it may end up changing. There’s considerable muscle behind the project though, with Maze being part of a larger corporation based in Shenzhen, China, with more than 850 employees, an 80-person strong research and development team, and partnerships with everyone from Qualcomm and Samsung to Japan Display and MediaTek. We’re looking forward to hearing more.
Let’s just hope the Alpha ends up being less of a slippery little devil than the Mi Mix.