The vivo Apex 2019 concept phone is here and it
packs some serious tech. It's powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset, has 256GB or
512GB of storage, 12GB of RAM and 5G - the last two are firsts for vivo. Arriving just a day after Meizu
announced its take on the portless buttonless phone, vivo's Apex 2019 is a
rather different beast despite similar looks.
For starters the Apex 2019 has a port, of sorts.
Whereas the Meizu Zero relies entirely on wireless charging, the Apex 2019 uses
what vivo calls MagPort - a magnetic connector on the rear that's used for
charging and data transfer.
The 6.39-inch AMOLED display of the vivo Apex 2019
doubles as the speaker by using a piezoelectric transducer to emit sound. It's
surrounded by very thin bezels with no sight of a selfie camera. What's more interesting is the
Full-Display Fingerprint Scanning - you can touch almost anywhere on the screen
to unlock via the in-display fingerprint scanner - this would make it the
most-advanced in-display fingerprint scanner out there.
The vivo Apex 2019, like Meizu's phone, uses a
combination of capacitive touch and pressure-sensing to replace the standard
power and volume buttons on the sides. This way you get the functionality of
the buttons while retaining a seamless, button-less design. The dual camera on the rear is a
12MP + 13MP with an LED flash.
vivo hasn't said a word about the selfie camera - is
it a pop-up slider or does the concept come without one. We also don't know if the vivo
Apex 2019 has wireless charging and if it's waterproof like the Meizu Zero.
Since this is a concept phone, don't expect vivo to
release it to the market in this exact configuration. Still, last year vivo
showed off the impressive Apex concept and later on released the NEX that used
a bunch of its technologies. vivo will show off the Apex 2019 concept phone at
the Mobile World Congress in February.
