  Motivated by the exciting features and a recent proposed general form of the
function of non-metricity scalar Q, we investigate the cosmological
implications in $f(Q)$ gravity, through the resulting effective dark energy
sector, extracting analytical expressions for the dark energy density,
equation-of-state parameter and the deceleration parameters. We show that even
in the absence of a cosmological constant, the universe exhibits the usual
thermal history, with the sequence of matter and dark energy eras, and the
dark-energy equation-of-state parameter always lie in the phantom regime.
Additionally, calculating the age of the universe, through the extracted
analytical equations of the scenario at hand, we show that the result coincide
with the value corresponding to $\Lambda$CDM scenario within 1$\sigma$.
Moreover, we show the excellent agreement of the scenario at hand with
Supernovae type Ia observational data. Lastly, comparing the cosmological
behavior in the case of the absence of an explicit cosmological constant, with
the one of the presence of a cosmological constant we show that $f(Q)$ gravity
can mimic the cosmological constant in a very efficient way, providing very
similar behavior, revealing the advantages and capabilitites of the scenario at
hand.
