I tested Tecno’s bezel-less concept phone, and it’s not the future we were promised

Go back to around 2018, when every other week brought a new iPhone concept render showing the device that was one continuous pane of glass with no border anywhere. Apple’s Jony Ive even said he wanted an iPhone to “appear like a single sheet of glass,” suggesting he apparently wasn’t a fan of iPhone designs at that time. The conceptual artists started from there. Fast forward to IFA 2026 in Berlin, where Chinese smartphone maker Tecno is showing off a bezel-less concept phone. Granted, Tecno’s phone isn’t quite what I described it as, but it’s closer than anything I’ve ever collected.

Held to death, Tecno’s phone has no bezel, as the company says. Content extends to the edge of the glass on all four sides, with only a punch-hole selfie camera breaking up the all-screen look. But if you tilt your head and look at the edges of the screen at an angle, the illusion collapses.

Tecno’s concept phone isn’t just for show, as if it were under glass in a museum. This concept phone is a fully functional Android device, featuring a 6.7-inch flat screen with a 144Hz refresh rate. The device appears to be a version of the Tecno Canom Slim, running a Dimensity 7300e chipset – that’s probably because this device is still a concept.

During my use of the concept device, I watched YouTube videos, viewed photos I had taken in the gallery, and used the phone as I usually would. True to their promise, the media fill the panel from corner to corner. A photo without a black frame around it looks noticeably different from the same photo on any phone you can buy. Pinch to zoom in on videos, and the phone comes into its own when the image fills the screen. When scrolling daily, you don’t really notice the lack of frames. But when I switched back to my iPhone 17 Pro Max – a device that already had pretty thin bezels – I noticed they were back. It’s my favorite type of smartphone experience, when a feature is so good that you really notice when it’s not there.

The rest of the hardware on this concept phone is pretty ordinary. It’s not thin, but it’s not a brick either and the weight is pretty normal. The back is white plastic, which looks cheap but isn’t, partly because Tecno has integrated a 3D lenticular hologram of a butterfly that animates when you move the phone. It’s the same trick as the holographic bookmarks you may have had as a kid. I’ve never seen this on a phone before, and it’s a nice touch. However, I can’t help but think that Tecno’s decision to add this might tell you something about its confidence in bezel-less functionality.

The OLED panel still has an inactive edge that Tecno has just hidden under the frame of the device. The way it works is with two layers of protective glass. The top layer extends to the edge of the frame, while the bottom glass layer and the panel itself continue below. To do this, Tecno had to build the phone upside down, mounting the screen from the back rather than the front and using a custom adhesive placed between the frame and the bottom piece of glass. Tecno describes the approach as a mix of internal stacking changes, structural re-engineering and new screen packaging.

Standing next to someone holding the phone, you’ll never spot the hidden frame until you tilt it off-axis and look closely. There you’ll find the bezel tucked under the frame, and much more visible. Reading something at the very bottom of the screen is probably the only everyday position where it might grab your attention.

The rails, however, are a bigger problem. They sit well above the glass and constantly catch your thumb. This stands in stark contrast to the subtle elegance of the bezel-less display; while you might not notice the lack of bezels, you will definitely notice the rails. They don’t give you anything in terms of grip assistance, and they get in the way a lot when you slide your finger in from the side of the screen. However, I never triggered any spurious input or had any contact not picked up right at the edge of the screen, which is where one would assume this device would run into problems.

For now, Tecno’s bezel-less phone remains a concept device. The company declined to say whether this device would make it to market. The response I kept getting was that it was a conceptual device at the moment. This is also the language used by the company to present its modular phone concept which reminds us of a failed experiment from LG 2016. This product, presented at MWC 2026, has not yet been marketed either.

In everyday life, the edge-to-edge screen is simply something you look at. Video is the best use case for this, especially when you zoom in on a YouTube video to get past the mailbox. On a phone with a screen this size, that’s a noticeable increase in display area. But none of that makes a bezel-less phone something I’d buy on its own merits, although Tecno hasn’t given anyone a chance anyway.

Where I see bezel-less display technology being more useful is on a thin phone like the iPhone Air or Galaxy S25 Edge, which already focus on being thin and providing a premium experience when held in the hand. Both devices are also real and shipping today. Tecno clearly has the same idea, designing this concept from its slim device. Although Tecno made the display part work, the 2018 concept renders never had rails that grabbed your thumb. If bezel-less phones are going to become mainstream, I think we still have some work to do.