Vivo was the first company to unveil a smartphone with a slim top bezel and no camera notch… because the front-facing camera for the Vivo NEX is hidden behind the screen and only popped up when you need it.

Now rumor has it that the company plans to launch a follow-up to the NEX. This time there are no moving parts because there’s no front-facing camera at all.

Instead, Vivo appears to be borrowing a design idea from the Nubia X and sticking a secondary display on the back of the phone. That was you can use the high-quality rear cameras to snap selfies or make video calls — no front camera required.

Details are scarce at the moment — Vivo hasn’t officially announced the phone yet and there’s no word on the price or release date.

But according to a few photos and details leaked on Chinese social media service Weibo, here’s what we can expect:

  • 6.4 inch FHD+ OLED display on the front
  • Smaller OLED display on the back
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor
  • 22.5W fast charging support

It also looks like there are two or three cameras on the back of the phone, along with an LED flash bulb.

On the one hand, the dual-screen concept makes a lot of sense — why add an inferior camera to the front instead of a viewfinder that lets you use the rear cameras for everything?

The second screen could also let you do new things with a phone such as using both screens at once so two people can view a presentation, video, or photo slideshow at the same time or so you can use wallpapers change the look of your phone’s back side — assuming you don’t care too much about battery life.

On the other hand, this sort of design certainly poses a challenge for case makers.

via GizmoChina and GSM Arena

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2 replies on “Vivo NEX 2 may swap pop-up camera for a second screen”

  1. Motorola was doing this in the early 2000s. I believe it was either the V600 or the Razer that introduced it.

    I would much rather have something like this than a notch. But the screen doesn’t need to be that big. Use a small 2inch screen. It doesn’t even need to be high quality, as long as I can make out the silhouette of my head to make sure it’s in frame. Maybe also have a focus-confirmation LED?

    1. Nope, you wouldn’t quite see the texture and lighting. I guess if they put in a 16:9 screen, cause you know, all the photos/videos come in that aspect ratio it would be helpful. And if the screen is a mere 720p LCD, that would go a long way.

      Then in the bottom bezel you could throw in the speakers and fingerprint scanner. It would look like an iPhone 8 Plus. But then I wouldn’t really see myself using the other all-screen side much. Even if it had a great 21:9 4K-HDR OLED bezeless display.

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