Lenovo’s new Zuk Edge smartphone is built with nearly every feature I would look for in a phone in the year 2016. It has a 5.5-inch curved, Full HD display, a Snapdragon 821 processor, a 3,100mAh battery, and a USB-C port. Of course, it has a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and an eight-megapixel front-facing camera, too. Oh, and it also runs Android Nougat and has teeny tiny bezels. Lenovo markets its phone as having a fingerprint sensor embedded under its display. In actuality, yes, the fingerprint sensor is embedded under the same glass that covers the display, but it isn’t as revolutionary as Lenovo makes it sound. The sensor is beneath a home button, so it isn’t really hidden at all.
So while the phone isn’t as innovative as it could have been, it hints at what I hope will be the broader 2017 trend of a bezel-less phone, as well as more discreet fingerprint sensors. The Edge only costs up to $360. Exciting 2016 stuff! (There appears to be a headphone jack, so the Edge isn’t as 2016 as it could be.)
But here’s a reminder: 2017 is approaching in only a couple weeks, as is CES. Pretty soon that 821 processor is going to be outdated, and we’re going to want more battery power, a higher resolution display, and even less bezel space. Lucky for you, the Edge is only available in China, so you can’t get this 2016 phone, even if you wanted to. Unless you live in China, in which case, feel free to embrace 2016 one more time. It could use a hug.
Correction 12/27, 9:28 AM ET: Initially stated that the fingerprint sensor was hidden beneath the display. The sensor is actually embedded beneath a home button. The article has been corrected to reflect this.