A closer look at Vivo’s all-glass, port-free concept 5G phone

Picture this: you're holding two glossy all-glass concept phones for a photo, then one slips off and shatters another unit on the table. The room goes quiet. Everyone looks on in awe. You are left red-faced not because you broke a phone, but because...

Google brings dedicated Assistant buttons to more phones

Google Assistant buttons won't just be limited to a handful of LG phones this year. The internet giant has widened its partnerships to add dedicated buttons to a whole range of handsets in 2019, including returning partner LG (on phones like the G8 T...

No buttons, no ports, the all-glass Vivo Apex 2019 is the purest smartphone ever built

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A triumph of minimalism, the Vivo Apex 2019 concept phone is, in many ways, what the iPhone should have become. Pure and pristine in every sense, and made completely from glass (something Apple even patented in 2014) with no trims or embellishments, barring the cameras, the Vivo Apex 2019 is quite literally flawless. It ditches the buttons and the ports (completely functional details, if you think about it) and puts aesthetics on a pedestal. Obviously, this raises a few questions… like how do you insert a sim-card, or bootload the phone without physical buttons, or even wire-charge the phone, but that’s not something Vivo is really concerning themselves with immediately, given that the Apex is just a proof-of-concept at the moment, intended at showcasing Vivo’s vision for the future of smartphone aesthetics. Oh yeah, the future has no notch too, so a big thumbs up there.

The front of the Apex 2019 is perhaps just as eye-catching as the back, with a full edge-to-edge screen and a minimal bezel. There’s no notch, but there’s a slight hint at the phone having a chin, which is where I surmise Vivo’s planning on putting their front-facing camera. The phone also comes with a full-screen fingerprint sensor, eliminating the need for an extra blemish/sensor on the phone’s otherwise-pristine body. Flip the phone on its back and it literally has two cameras, a flash, the branding, and a barely visible set of magnetic connector points that I suspect will be for modular attachments like a jack or physical buttons or perhaps a SIM to eSIM converting device. Who knows. Let’s just focus on basking in the beauty of this perfect, unblemished, piece of smartphone purity. Ahhh…

Designer: Vivo

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Vivo’s all-glass phone has no ports and a full-screen fingerprint reader

2019 may be the year of flexible mobile devices, but judging by a couple of announcements from China this week, it appears that we may also be expecting the disappearance of holes and ports on smartphones. Following yesterday's Meizu Zero, today Vivo...

Vivo’s all-screen NEX goes dual-display to ditch the pop-up camera

While Vivo is still a largely exotic brand for many of us, you may remember it as the first manufacturer to both tease and release a truly bezel-less smartphone. And of course, Vivo's NEX S gained extra street cred thanks to its pop-up selfie camera...

Vivo’s new dual-display dual-cam phone is a selfie-taker’s delight

Probably one of the companies that are daring to be different, Vivo’s going guns-a-blazing into the smartphone war. With all smartphones practically looking the same today, Vivo’s mantra is simple. Push boundaries, grab eyeballs, and make enough sense to let your idea appear to be genius. Their Apex concept was arguably the first to ditch the notch and have a moving camera, and the company was also the first to introduce in-screen fingerprint reading. All this was to push the display to its absolute edges, with nothing obstructing it whatsoever. The newly leaked Vivo Nex 2 manages to make that a possibility, with no notch and absolutely no front-facing camera.

The perceived genius, however, of the Nex 2 is that it has only one side with the camera, the back. However, the back also comes with a display of its own, so you’d use the same camera as both the front-facing camera with the back-display, and as a regular camera with the front-display. Around the camera (a dual-lens one, at that) is an LED ring that works as a rather quaintly different notification light as well as a ring-light for your selfies, allowing you to take better portraits than the ones with the powerful flash.

The genius of the Nex 2 is that it can be easily used pretty much any way you see fit. The phone comes with an in-screen fingerprint sensor on the front, and Vivo’s been experimenting with 3D facial scanning too, so the back of the phone would use facial unlock, giving you the ability to take your phone out of your pocket and use it with either side facing up. Stroke of genius or just really weird innovation from the east? Time shall only tell!

Designer: Vivo

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