Vivo seems to be preparing a second-gen NEX smartphone, and according to a couple of new reports, it will be called the Vivo NEX 2. That’s not all, though, as some info leaked regarding this smartphone, along with some images. Let’s start with the two images that appeared in China, shall we. Those two images surfaced on Weibo (Chinese social network), and are showing a phone both from the front and from the back. These are real-life images, and it seems like the phone will actually sport two displays, which is quite interesting. The phone’s main display will be on the front, while its secondary panel will be included on the back. Now, the second display will be implemented simply in order to maximize screen real estate of the front-facing panel, it seems. By implementing a display on the back, users will simply be able to flip the phone around, and take a selfie with the phone’s rear-facing cameras, which means that a front-facing camera will not be a part of the package at all, thus Vivo has more room on the front to ditch bezels.
That is not all, though, as the phone is also said to sport an RGB LED “Lunar Ring” which will be placed around its triple camera setup on the back… yes, the phone will sport three rear-facing cameras. The “Lunar Ring” will be used to notify you when you have notifications, as it will basically glow in a number of colors, just like a regular LED notification light would, but… different, as this is a much larger notification light, and it will be located on the back, and not the front. The Vivo NEX 2 is also rumored to feature a time-of-flight scanner, which will be able to scan 3D objects, such a human faces, for example. This could actually be a really useful tool when it comes to augmented reality, presuming that it’s any good, of course. Now, if you check out an embedded video down below, you will see an unboxing of the Vivo NEX 2, kind of. A YouTuber called “Mrwhosetheboss” apparently got his hands on the phone, but he seems to be under embargo on Vivo’s part, so he was unable to properly show the device in the video. He does, however, show us the “Lunar Ring” on the back, so you’ll get a really good idea as to how that will work, while he also said that the phone will “come out this December”, so we can expect it to launch next month. To top it all off, Venya Geskin has actually created a render of the phone which is based on all the info that we’ve mentioned, and that render is included above the display.
Background: The Vivo NEX was announced back in June, and the phone actually arrived in two variants, one variant carried the name Vivo NEX S, while the other one was called the Vivo NEX A. The Vivo NEX A is inferior to the Vivo NEX S, as it ships with the Snapdragon 710 64-bit octa-core processor, but other than that, these two phones are extremely similar. Having said that, the Vivo NEX S and A shipped with extremely thin bezels, and are still amongst the phones with the highest screen-to-body ratios. The Vivo NEX S and A do sport some bezel below the display (very little), and their top bezel is just a hair thinner than the side bezels, but that’s basically it. The phone did come with a pop-up front-facing camera, which made all of this possible, and it seems like Vivo is taking a considerably different approach with the Vivo NEX 2, and only six months after the first-gen Vivo NEX devices got announced. Based on the first-gen models, the Vivo NEX 2 may also arrive in two variants, one variant fueled by the Snapdragon 845 or the next-gen Snapdragon flagship processor which is expected to arrive soon, and the other one fueled by one of Qualcomm’s mid-range processors, perhaps the Snapdragon 710 again. The Vivo NEX S and A are made out of metal and glass, and the same will happen with the Vivo NEX 2, but the majority of its body will be covered by displays, and glass will be included on top of them, of course. Now, as far as a fingerprint scanner is concerned, we do not really know what to expect when it comes to that phone, but chances are that Vivo will include an in-display fingerprint scanner in the phone’s main panel, as it did on the first-gen Vivo NEX. Some sort of facial scanning will also be included in the package, and Android 9 Pie is expected to come pre-installed on the Vivo NEX 2. The phone will also ship with a rather large battery, as not only is the phone’s main panel expected to be extremely large, but there are two panels here that it needs to fuel, even though those two displays will not be on at the same time.
Impact: It’s hard to deny that this is an interesting concept that Vivo came up with, a concept that will become a reality next month. The company opted to replace a pop-up camera with a secondary display on the back. Not only will this phone ship with two displays, which is still a rather odd concept for most people, but it will also sport a huge LED notification light which will have other purposes, quite probably. The phone’s Lunar Ring actually cuts into the secondary display, as you can see in the provided render, and all that, in combination with a horizontally-aligned triple camera setup makes for a really interestingly-looking smartphone. The Vivo NEX 2 probably won’t be cheap, but it’s expected to cost less than a number of flagships out there, similar to the Vivo NEX S. This phone will become official next month, but it remains to be seen when will it become available for purchase. Considering the timing of its launch, the Vivo NEX 2 will probably arrive with the Snapdragon 845, especially considering that some people, like Mrwhosetheboss, for example, already managed to get their hands on the device, so it’s highly unlikely that Qualcomm’s next-gen flagship SoC will be included in the phone.