The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), isn’t quite the behemoth that it used to be, but it will still host some of 2020’s most advanced and outrageous tech, especially in terms of TVs. This year, according to rumors and leaks, Samsung’s big reveal is going to be an 8K TV with bezels so small as to be practically invisible.
The TV, according to German website 4K Filme which appears to have obtained some press images of the upcoming set, is basically just a square of screen, with virtually no border around its alleged 8K picture. And while this particular set will almost certainly be unfathomably expensive if it is available for sale at all, it may point to a broader 2020 trend: the final death of the bezel.
Phones have more or less dispensed with borders around their screens as early as 2014 with the oft-forgotten-but-very-impressive Sharp Aquos Crystal but most notably with the 2017 iPhone X, with bezels so small as to barely exist. Samsung, meanwhile, has taken matters even further with its curving-edge Galaxy S phones.
The advent of an 8K television with no need for a black border speaks to the continuing perfection of this approach and suggests that 2020 just may be the year when the traditional bezel begins to breathe its last gasps after years of shrinking into obscurity. It’s beautiful as all get-out, but not without a few downsides, like making repairability and screen replacement ever more difficult, making handheld devices harder to hold and making pretty much everything more expensive.
But hopefully you’re sold on the aesthetics because after 2020 you might not have much of a choice.
