Vivo’s NEX smartphone was the first to feature a slim-bezel design and a pop-up selfie camera. Now the company has unveiled a follow-up.

Like the NEX, the new phone has no visible front-facing camera. But that’s because you use the rear cameras for everything — including selfies and video chat.

Instead of putting camera on the front and back of the phone, Vivo put screens on the front and back of the Vivo NEX Dual Display Edition.

The idea is that the rear display can be used as a viewfinder when you’re snapping selfies or making video calls… and you don’t have to rely on an inferior camera when doing so.

Vivo isn’t the first company with this idea — the Nubia X also features two screens and no front camera.

But the Vivo Nex Dual Display certainly looks like a pretty strong implementation of the concept. It features a 6.4 inch, 2340 x 1080 pixel Super AMOLED display on the front and a second 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel AMOLED screen on the back.

In addition to serving as a “mirror” when you’re snapping pictures, the rear screen can also be used as a touchpad that gives you access to virtual buttons while gaming, among other things.

There are three rear cameras:

  • 12MP primary camera with f/1.79 aperture
  • 2MP f/1.8 camera
  • Time of Flight 3D camera for face unlock and distance measurement

Like most phones with decent cameras, the Vivo NEX Dual Display has an LED flash, but there’s also a “Lunar Ring” that can provide light when you snap a photo or glow to let you know about incoming notifications.

If you don’t want to look at the back of the phone to unlock it, you can also use an in-display fingerprint sensor on the front of the screen.

Other features include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 10GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 3,500 mAh battery, an Android 9 Pie software.

The phone has dual SIM support and a headphone jack, but no NFC or microSD card reader

The phone is available for pre-order in China for about $720.

via GSM Arena and The Verge

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7 replies on “So long pop-up camera: Vivo launches the NEX Dual Display Edition”

  1. They should’ve made the front of the device 22:9, where the curved-corners don’t cut into the 21:9 aspect ratio (6in ?) display and removed the earpiece. That way the front is all-screen. Meant to be perfect for watching content.

    Wanna do something useful?
    You have to flip it over!
    The rear will have the logo, the main (front/rear) camera, the earpiece, and even the fingerprint scanner at the centre of the in-display. The only “problem” is that the rear will have a “pathetic” 16:9 rectangle (5in ?) display.

    I wonder in such a device, which side will people use most often and how would it be split?
    50:50, or 40:60, or 20:80, etc etc

  2. Sigh… Lots of extra expense, engineering work, phone flipping… just to avoid adding a little bezel on top. I guess front-firing speakers are a “feature” that’s extinct now too along with LED notifications, quick access buttons (I know, this was long gone) and other user-friendly options.

    As much as I’ve complained about 16:9 aspect ratios being too thin on computer-phones, they’re gone too… in a blink of an eye in favor of something even thinner.

      1. I would exclusively only use the 16:9 back as the phone.

        The front would now become “the back” for me, and I would use that full-display as a feature to change the colour of my device on a daily basis. Call the fashion police.

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