Vivo’s Nex is a true all-screen phone with a pop-out selfie camera
Now 100% notch free.
If Lenovo's failure to deliver a genuine full-screen display for the Z5 left you feeling burned, Vivo's flagship Nex could ease the pain. The Nex is making the transition from concept phone to retail product -- in China, at least -- and boasts an impressive 91.24 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Nex runs on Qualcomm's state-of-the-art Snapdragon 845 processor, and backs it up with 8GB of RAM topped off by an Adreno 630 GPU. Tucked behind its 6.59-inch Ultra FullView display is a 8-megapixel camera that ascends whenever you summon it to take a selfie. We first laid eyes on the pop-up camera during this year's MWC. It pops out in under a second (or so Vivo says) and retracts once you've finished snapping. It basically eliminates the need for a notch, which is all the rage right now.
Realizing the Nex's expansive, almost bezel-free look naturally demanded slight changes in other design components. In this case, the earpiece speaker is moved into the screen, and Vivo opts for an third gen in-display fingerprint scanner which helps to conceal the sensor beneath the display. There's still a tiny chin at the bottom, but it's really minimal.
The jury's still out on overall efficacy -- our test provided mixed results -- but early owners will be able to determine whether the fingerprint tech has improved since then. Regardless, Vivo's attempts at developing in-display fingerprint readers has paved a path which other smartphone makers are likely to follow.
Update: We now have hands-on pics that really show off that bezel-free experience, taken by our colleagues at Engadget Chinese at the Vivo NEX unveiling in Shanghai.
