Why Vivo thinks port-less phones are the future
Mobile World Congress is in the rear-view mirror, and by far the hottest topic was foldable smartphones. “Finally,” the thinking went, “we can be free of the boring and conventional phone form factor!” But that involves using flexible plastic for the bendable screens, which is likely to represent a compromise in durability and plain niceness. What if there’s more to be done with glass?
That’s what Vivo’s Apex 2019 concept smartphone is all about. With a stated goal of “futuristic simplicity,” Vivo devised a way to build a phone almost entirely out of glass, with its “super unibody” chassis designed to make the screen even more prominent. “All user interactions are centered around the display alone,” says Vivo product manager Ding Guanli,...