Just yesterday, Meizu Zero was unveiled as a concept phone from the company with no ports, no buttons, no speakers grills, and no SIM card tray. That phone relies completely on Wireless charging, E-SIM, a piezoelectric transducer, and the pressure sensitive side panels. Today, the Vivo APEX 2019 was officially unveiled, and this is a pretty similar phone to the Meizu Zero as it too has no buttons.
Unlike the Meizu Zero, the Apex 2019 has a magnetic connector on the rear that is used to connect the magnetic charger. So, we cannot say that it is a completely port-less phone.
Spark Ni, the Senior VP, Vivo, said at the launch –
With the goal of enhanced usability and simplicity at the core, APEX 2019 offers consumers a glimpse into the future of smartphone design and development. The Super Unibody design and Full-Display Fingerprint Scanning technology, among several other breakthrough features, make APEX 2019 a truly exceptional smartphone that demonstrates Vivo’s continuous exploration and the pursuit of exceptional innovation for consumers.
Apart from the button-less design, the Vivo APEX 2019 is also the first smartphone to feature a ‘Fullscreen fingerprint scanner.’ This means that users can touch anywhere on display to unlock it and so, unlike previously launched phones with in-display fingerprint scanners, the scanning area is not limited to a small part of the display. So, you can say that the whole screen is a fingerprint scanner.
When we first heard about the phone, we wanted to know where the company would place the front camera. It looks like the Vivo APEX 2019 doesn’t have one, and the company hasn’t explained why. Speaking of the rear cameras, however, there are two cameras on the back that include 12MP + 13MP sensors.
As mentioned above, there is a magnetic connector on the back (the company calls it ‘Magport’) where the magnetic charger can be attached to charge the phone. So, the Vivo APEX 2019 doesn’t completely rely on the wireless charging as the Meizu Zero. Talking about the specifications, the phone has 6.39-inch AMOLED display, Snapdragon 855 processor, 12GB RAM, 256/512GB storage, and 5G support.
The areas on the sides where the buttons usually reside use the pressure and touch sensing to get the functionality of power and volume buttons. There is no speaker grill, and the Vivo APEX 2019 uses the piezoelectric transducer like the Meizu ZERO to emit the sound off the display in the form of vibrations.
Vivo hasn’t revealed everything about the phone yet but at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, the company is going to showcase this device, so maybe then we will know about the APEX 2019 in detail.