I don’t know if any of you have noticed this topic come up during discussions about phones, but if you’ve ever visited a thread that talks about any new smartphone on the horizon you’re bound to find one or two comments that talk about the size of the bezels.

Discussions on bezel sizes have been popping up more frequently over the past few years. As phones have reached the point of being almost too big for comfort, the only way to achieve bigger screen sizes (which people still want regardless of comfort) is to maximize the amount of real estate that these already large phones have to offer – and you do that by cutting down on bezel. When a new phone – particularly flagships – come out, one of the first things I see people talk about is how much space is being wasted with unnecessary bezels.

But are bezels really that bad?

I didn’t used to have a problem with bezels. I used to think they were pretty much necessary so that my phone wasn’t registering my palm or fingers grasping onto the sides of the device. But I am starting to have a problem with wasted real estate. There is a certain allure to having a larger screen, and as somebody who has a hard time dealing with larger phones, chipping away at the bezel for a larger screen seems to be a favorable solution.

And really, at this point, I guess it’s anyone’s best bet. I think we’ve reached the point where smartphones aren’t going to get much bigger in size (overall) in order to stay comfortable to the average person. One of the best ways to keep the entire phone the same size while still increasing screen size is to get rid of those tricksy bezelses. For example, we have the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, which gives us an oddly revolutionary way of getting rid of bezels in the traditional sense.

With that in mind, though, I’m not sure if a design like Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge is really the solution I want to see in all phones. While it works fine for the S6 Edge itself, I’m hoping it doesn’t become a standard trend in the industry. I think something more modest like the BlackBerry PRIV’s “edge” (which is more of a slight downward slope) would be more acceptable, but the S6 Edge’s edge is just too drastic.

Alternatively you have phones that don’t have sloping edges at all and just feature extremely slim bezels – to the point where they’re practically invisible - on the sides. While these certainly have their appeal (and look awesome) I think I still feel most comfortable with a visible bezel on all surrounding sides of my smartphone. Not only is there lesser risk of the phone accidentally registering a rogue touch here and there, but just having my hand cover up some of the screen would bother me more than I also think that at least some thickness to a bezel would add some much-needed structural security. I’m also in the camp of needing a case on my smartphone at all times, so having little to no bezel on the sides probably wouldn’t do somebody like me much good anyway.

So, when we wrap everything up, are bezels actually that bothersome? In my opinion they certainly can be. Are they so bothersome that we need to get rid of them completely? Probably not. I think some phones could use some tweaking to better optimize the space given by eliminating bezel space, but I’m not going to get too upset if a phone that I think is otherwise completely awesome has a big bezel.

Readers, how important is it that your phone features small bezels? Alternatively, do you prefer having bigger bezels on your phone? Let us know in the comments below!