We present a characterization of the set of non-signaling correlations in terms of a two dimensional representation that involves the maximal value of a Bell functional and the mutual information between the parties. In particular, we apply this representation to the bipartite Bell scenario with two measurements and two outcomes. In terms of these physically meaningful quantities and through numerical optimization methods and some analytical results, we investigate the frontier between the different subsets of the non-signaling correlations, focussing on the quantum and post-quantum ones. Finally, we show that the Tsirelson bound appears as a singular point in this context without resorting to quantum mechanics.