Imagine a phone that has no visible holes, no USB-C ports, no stereo minijack, no buttons, no SIM tray, no speaker grilles. A phone that feels like a solid slab of glass that magically lights up.
In theory it seems like an impossible sci-fi feat: How do you operate something completely devoid of buttons? How do you connect to the cell-phone network without a SIM?
Well, that’s exactly what two manufacturers have just pre-announced this week in preparation for MWC: the Vivo Apex 2019 and the Meizu Zero.
To get rid of USB-C and the headphone jack, the Meizu uses wireless charging, Bluetooth audio, and the usual LTE/Wi-Fi communications. The Vivo does the same, but charges through magnetic metal pins flush with the back surface and, instead of LTE, uses 5G.
To avoid speaker grilles, which are needed with traditional sound drivers so the sound blows out the body, these phones use piezo-electric technology that makes their OLED displays vibrate so they can act as loudspeakers.
To eliminate the buttons for power and volume, both Vivo and Meizu replaced them with touch surfaces integrated on the body’s edges. These surfaces have haptic feedback. When users touch them, they feel like they are clicking physical buttons, much like Apple did with the home button in the iPhone 7 and 8.
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