China’s Vivo unveils US$800 notch-free phone with a pop-up camera solution

China’s Vivo launched a new ‘notch-free’ flagship handset on Tuesday, bucking the trend of other Chinese smartphone makers who have followed Apple’s iPhone X notch format, striking a design compromise that incorporates a full screen display with a pop-up camera solution.

The NEX flagship series launched by China’s third-largest smartphone vendor brings the industry one step closer to its ‘bezel-less’ dream as the pop-up camera solution achieves a screen-to-body ratio of more than 91 per cent. This compares with typical notch-design phones that have a screen-to-body ratio of around 80 per cent.

The revolutionary design has allowed Vivo to price its handset at 4,998 yuan (US$780) for the high-end model powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The entry-level model is priced at 3,898 yuan. The high-end model is the most expensive handset Vivo has ever produced.

Shenzhen-based Vivo is hoping the NEX range can help to revive its smartphone sales. It was the only major Chinese vendor to experience a decline in domestic shipments last year as the China market remains saturated, according to IDC. Vivo also unveiled Fifa World Cup limited edition smartphones last month, hoping to boost sales in line with the global football event which kicks off this week.

The NEX series is the mass production version of a concept phone Vivo showcased during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. It incorporates an 8 megapixel pop-up selfie camera (hidden behind the display until needed), Screen SoundCasting Technology which turns the display into a speaker, in-display fingerprint scanning technology which can unlock the phone via finger pressure on the screen directly, as well as a number of hidden sensors along the phone’s edges to maximise the screen-to-body ratio.