Chinese phone maker Vivo unveiled a sleek concept phone in February, promising a a nearly all-screen device with a notchless design and a slim top bezel… because there’s no camera built into the front of the Vivo Apex.

If you want to snap a selfie or make a video call, you can use a camera that pops out from the case, and which tucks away inside the phone when it’s not in use. Not only does that give the front of the phone a more seamless design, but it also means the camera can’t record you without permission… because it can’t see you.

While Vivo initially described the Apex as a concept device, the company is holding a launch event in China on June 12th for a new phone that sure looks like the Apex… although rumor has it that the phone will be called the Vivo NEX.

This week Vivo released a teaser video showing an all-screen phone with a pop-out camera, an in-display fingerprint sensor, and dual rear cameras.

And over the past few days a few photos of the phone in the wild have been making the rounds. While the phone does have a bit of a “chin” on the bottom, the top, left, and right bezels are some of the slimmest around, likely giving the phone one of the highest screen-to-body ratios around.

Vivo is one of the world’s top phone makers, in terms of units shipped. But for the most part the company’s phones are sold in China, so I wouldn’t expect to find the Vivo NEX in US stores anytime soon.

Vivo does have a track record of being ahead-of-the curve with new features though. The company was one of the first to focus on super-thin phones. Vivo was the first to launch a phone with 6GB of RAM. And the company was one of the first with dual front cameras and in-display fingerprint sensors.

So while the Vivo NEX may never come to the United States, I wouldn’t be shocked if we see other phones with similar pop-out cameras in the future.

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10 replies on “Vivo’s all-screen phone with pop-out camera launching June 12th”

  1. Hope someone do one without a front facing camera, sounds niche but i’m sure there’s a market for it.

  2. I like the camera from a privacy perspective but also wouldn’t mind seeing regular bezel-camera with built-in lens cover. My fav, so far, was Oppo’s versatile swivel camera – as it allowed a degree of privacy and the ability to shot from various angles.

  3. If it’s gonna be overpriced or way too close to more established Android OEMs with better dev support AND sub 4000mAh batt then it’s a no go. No matter how fancy it is. Still 100 point though for a solid notchless effort.

  4. For privacy, this looks good. At least you know when you are taking pictures and recording video.

  5. And it probably won’t work on T-Mobile/ AT&T LTE. If it did, that’d be pretty cool.

  6. That seems slow to start, easy to break, needlessly expensive and most likely makes waterproofing nearly impossible. Hope it has a headphone jack, because if they had the space for this but not for that, than their priorities are all kind of wrong.

    1. Waterproof is not hard compared with USB ports and headphone jacks, those require external connections.
      Sure it might just take a little more time to startup, but most of the time you aren’t in a complete hurry when taking selfies anyway. It is better for people who do not even take selfies.

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