It's the year 2018 and that means there are a lot of phones out there with minimized bezels. A lot of those handsets have notches, too, making it almost the standard operating procedure when it comes to design. Some companies aren't conforming to that idea (yet), and there are some companies that are sticking bezels on their handsets anyway. This is typically reserved for devices that don't fit in the high-end category, though.
Unless you are Razer and you're launching a flagship phone.
If you didn't watch the livestream for Razer's unveiling of the Razer Phone 2 last night, there's one thing you should know: This is a flagship phone. That was the primary takeaway from the unveiling, at least through the first half. A flagship's flagship, with all of the high-end features you'd expect from such a device.
Oh, and it has bezels. Really big side bezels. Razer CEO, Min-Liang Tan, was not shy about this part at all, and even praised it. He defended the decision based on ergonomics, and the fact that the Razer Phone 2 is designed to play games. And the front-facing speakers probably have something to do with it, too, which are huge and obvious.
Tan isn't wrong, even if I don't necessarily agree that playing a game like PUBG Mobile on an iPhone XS is necessarily bad or uncomfortable. But, that being said, it is nice to have something to hold onto, especially for longer gaming sessions.
I have not been shy about my dislike for the notch, simply because it cuts into the display and the content I'm looking at. I dislike it. But I like the bezel-less designs more, so I live with it. Which means even if phones do go back to having bezels, for whatever reason that might happen, I probably wouldn't make the jump.
But the Razer Phone 2, and primarily Tan's love for those bezels, got me wondering about sticking with the design choice. There might not be many new phones to choose from right now, but that doesn't mean you might not have upgraded at all. Or maybe you did and you went with a mid-range handset. Either way, have you decided to stick with phones with bezels? Let me know!
