The “bezels” of a monitor or TV are the frame around the part of the screen that shows a visible image. Over the years the desire for thinner and thinner bezels has reached a sometimes unreasonable level, and the push to eliminate them altogether hasn’t abated.
But, why do we care so much about how much frame is around our screens? There are some pretty reasonable reasons, but in other cases it’s perhaps just a little silly.
A Brief History of Bezels
Home televisions and later computer monitors used CRT or Cathode Ray Tube technology to create images. The main part of a CRT display is a large and heavy glass and lead vacuum tube, making these displays heavy and fragile. So it’s not surprise that these TVs needed thick and sturdy cases, resulting in big bezels.
This is my late 90s to early 2000s Sony Trinitron 34-inch TV, and while the screen-to-bezel ratio is pretty decent, that’s still a pretty chunky frame.
Likewise, this lovely SUN Microsystems monitor I bought from a refurbisher is a 17-inch monitor with a thick and chunky bezel all around.
Not that I mind, because moving this monitor around, it feels rock-solid, and the same goes for my 150-pound TV, which is a three-person job at best to move.
Things got a lot better with flat-panel displays, but even so the bezels on my first 19-inch LCD monitor were not slim by any means. The bezels on my 34-inch ultrawide daily-driver work monitor are there, but most of the screen is in fact viewable.
When we get to devices like my M4 MacBook Pro, the bezels are practically gone. The only reason the top bezel is more substantial is to accomodate the built-in webcam.
Not only are the best current monitors, using technologies like Mini-LED and OLED, almost without bezels, they’re also incredibly thin. This could not have been easy to achieve, but clearly the engineers have been driven to reduce bezels by demands from customers. Which begs the question—why did we demand it in the first place?
The Psychology of the Border
The first reason I can think of has to do with value for money. If I buy a 17-inch monitor but only 15 of those diagonal inches are viewable, that feels a little like being cheated. This is why, with monitors and TVs over the years, the specs quote both the total measurement and the viewable area.
While flat panels on, for example, laptop computers may have stayed the same size, the effective viewable size of the screen has increased without the size of the device getting bigger. That’s a better deal by itself, not counting how the actual picture quality has improved.
But bezels don’t just take up physical space—they can also change how we perceive the image. Thin bezels offer a more immersive experience, because we don’t see the frame around the image. It’s the same reason people prefer borderless windows or edge-to-edge photos: our brains interpret them as more expansive and modern.
It also seems like people associate thinner bezels and more minimalism with more advanced and premium technology. It’s like you can just look at the “chin” of a phone and immediately know if it’s a cheap entry-level model, or a flagship.
When Bezels Actually Matter
Bezels aren’t just about aesthetics, whether thick or thin, they can serve a practical purpose and have different effects on the usability of different type of devices. My iPad Pro, for example, has relatively thick bezels compared to my MacBook, but unlike the Mac, I’m supposed to hold the device while using it, and bezels give me something to hold onto without obscuring the screen.
That said, modern tablet and phone bezels are so thin, software and hardware engineers have had to come up with some sophisticated touch-rejection technology which you never notice because it works so well.
If you’re using monitors in a multi-monitor setup, it’s usually a good idea to look for screens with thinner bezels, since this can make the experience more seamless. Though personally, I’ve moved to a large ultrawide, with a single satellite screen for peripheral information like emails, instead of having a bezel in the center of my vision.
The Future of Bezels
The tech industry is constantly trying to erase bezels entirely. We’ve seen phones with notches, hole-punch cameras, and even under-display sensors—all attempts to maximize screen real estate. TV makers are doing the same, pushing designs where the image appears to float without borders.
But will bezels ever entirely disappear? Well, it’s already possible and has sort-of happened already. For example, Samsung sells ultra-thin bezel displays as narrow as 1.8mm. The idea being that you can build massive video walls using these panels, and at normal distances such thin bezels won’t even be visible. LG has also demoed bezel-less screens (via Techradar) where two screens can be pushed together and look seamlessly like a single display.
There are electrical contacts around the edges of these zero-bezel screens, which means you can build a larger panel from smaller panels without a visible seam. In the future, this could be the way we get larger displays without needing to buy a 110-inch or larger display. No more trying to get one large screen through a door, and what about the ability to upgrade your TV later with more panels? That’s an interesting notion!
That said, I don’t think screens with no bezels will ever be commonplace. Simply for practical reasons. To make displays practical to handle for one thing, and we still need room for components like cameras or antennas, There’s always going to be a little bit of frame around the pretty pictures.
