Vivo today officially announced its often-teased APEX 2019 smartphone in China, and it’s quite an interesting offering, to say the least. While it’s presently being described as just a concept, it will likely become available commercially later this year, similar to its predecessor. The device not only comes with top-of-the-line specifications, but it’s also the very first smartphone to sport a full-screen fingerprint scanner, in other words, you can basically put your finger anywhere on the display in order to unlock the device, as the whole display is now a designated area, compared to every other phone with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
That’s not the only interesting thing about this phone, however, as this device has no ports whatsoever, just like the Meizu Zero which was announced yesterday, while it also lacks a front-facing camera. We’re looking at a unibody “3D design” here, and Vivo opted for glass here, curved glass, to be exact, as the phone’s glass curved from the sides to the back, as part of the unibody design. The phone’s physical buttons are replaced with pressure-sensitive power and volume buttons, and the device relies on a magnetic port that connects to the bottom part of the back cover in order to let you charge your phone and transfer data as well (if you’re using wires for that).
The Vivo APEX 2019 uses fullscreen sound technology, which uses the device’s screen as a speaker and also an earpiece… similar to the Meizu Zero, actually. Some of you may wonder what about a SIM card tray, how am I supposed to insert it if there are no ports. Well, the Vivo APEX 2019 comes with eSIM, and it has support for 5G. That’s not all, though, the company opted for a 3D duplex stacking design for the phone’s internals, and it also uses MoB packaging technology in order to reduce space inside of the device. Vivo did note that this phone will be displayed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month.
Now, you will notice that the device’s bezels are almost non-existent, the phone has absolutely no bezel above the display, or on the sides, but there still is a thin “chin” below the display. There are two cameras included on the back of the phone, they’re vertically aligned, and they do not protrude, they’re flush with the back side of this phone. An LED flash is included right below those cameras, while the “APEX” branding can be found on the back of the device as well.
Specs aren’t everything but they’re certainly monstrous
Well, Vivo did not exactly release its full spec sheet just yet, as this is just a concept phone at this point, but once it goes into production, which it probably will later this year, we’ll know more. For now, we do now that the phone is fueled by the Snapdragon 855 64-bit octa-core processor by Qualcomm, and that it has 12GB of RAM on the inside. The phone also features a 6.39-inch AMOLED display, though the company did not share its resolution just yet. Vivo did say, however, that there are 256GB and 512GB storage variants planned, but we’ll see if that will change moving forward. The company also mentioned that 12 and 13-megapixel cameras are included on the back, while the front-facing camera is missing.
The Vivo APEX 2019 is an odd phone, but mainly because it’s a unique phone. This is one of a kind handset, despite the fact Meizu Zero launched yesterday, as not only does it not have a front-facing camera, but it also comes with a full-screen fingerprint scanner, and is the first in the world with such tech. All in all, it’s an interesting concept, and it remains to be seen what kind of experience will it offer once Vivo releases it, if that ever happens, of course.
