Vivo has now shown off its Apex concept phone for this year, which does away with all the ports and physical buttons in favor of a single, uninterrupted block that boasts a nearly bezel-less display.
The futuristic-looking phone comes as a follow-up to last year's concept smartphone that formally introduced the popup selfie camera that was later seen on the Vivo Nex. Much like most concepts, the Apex 2019 probably won't arrive in the same form it has now, and that's assuming it gets released at all.
Vivo Apex 2019 Features
Still, on paper, the handset is one of the most impressive to come out this year, with all the bells and whistles befitting of the "2019 flagship" title. It's got 5G, for starters, which pretty much makes it future-proof in terms of mobile connectivity, as 5G is poised to penetrate the mainstream market in the coming years.
All-Display Fingerprint Sensor
There's an in-display fingerprint sensor, as well. But on most phones, only a small portion of the screen can accept fingerprints. Here, nearly the entire display can respond to a fingerprint, which means the user can lay their finger anywhere — top, middle, bottom, wherever — to unlock the device.
Vivo stresses that making a port-less phone out of a single piece of glass was difficult. Since there aren't any buttons, the phone uses a combination of capacitive and pressure sensors to simulate volume and sleep keys. As for the earpiece, the device vibrates to produce sound, as similarly seen on the first-generation Xiaomi Mi Mix.
On the back is a proprietary magnetic connector for charging and data transfers, which means that, if this gets released, users would have to contend with having to buy a new proprietary cable should they lose the ones that came with the phone since they can't use USB Type-C options.
Still, it's important to remember that this is a concept phone, and changes are bound to happen before it hits the mainstream market, assuming it reaches that point. Whether that means violating port-lessness for a bit of convenience is something that remains to be determined.
