Vivo’s Apex concept phone hides a pop-up camera behind its borderless display

Although Samsung may had made the biggest splash at MWC this year with its highly anticipated Galaxy S9 and S9+ , I’m a lot more excited about what Vivo’s getting up to with its Apex concept phone , which goes far beyond what any other manufacturer has managed thus far when it comes to ditching bezels around the display.

The Apex’s display has a 1.8mm bezel at the top, and a 4.3mm chin at the bottom – leaving no room for a front camera or even a speaker. However, those are still part of the package, thanks to some clever design and engineering feats.

First off, the 8-megapixel front snapper pops up from behind the screen in 0.8 seconds, above the top edge of the device – so there’s no need for a notch like on the Essential handset. As for the speaker that lets you hear calls with your ear to the phone, the company has done away with it and instead uses an exciter to turn the entire display into an earpiece.

The Apex also hides a fingerprint sensor beneath the display. Vivo had already pulled this off with ultrasound tech on the X20 Plus UD back in January, but it’s now improved upon that idea by increasing the on-screen sensor field to a space that’s about a quarter of the display. That negates the need to aim before placing your finger on the screen to unlock your device.

Pretty neat, huh? We’ll have to wait and see if any of these innovations actually make it to the production line, but it’s nice to see Vivo thinking out of the box and ahead of the competition.

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