Meizu Zero first look: phone without buttons or ports takes minimalism to new extremes
- Charging is done wirelessly, buttons have been replaced by pressure-sensitive panels, and e-SIM niche technology replaces the SIM card slot
- Chinese phone maker’s innovations are still too unpolished and far from practical, but make no mistake – they will be the norm sooner than you think
First they removed headphone jacks. Then they shrunk bezels around the screen down to mere slivers. Next they got rid of physical home buttons. It is only a matter of time until a phone maker takes minimalist design to the extreme and removes everything on the housing.
That is almost what Chinese phone maker Meizu has done with its radical concept phone, the Zero. It is a smartphone without buttons, ports, speaker grilles, or even a SIM card slot. The Zhuhai-based company calls it “a hole-less phone”.
That is actually not quite true. There are a couple of tiny, pin-sized holes at the bottom for microphones – otherwise the phone wouldn’t be able to take in sound – but they’re barely visible.
Other than that and a slightly protruding camera on the back, the Zero does feel like a seamless unibody device. It helps that the handset’s main body is made of heavier and sturdier ceramic instead of glass, and that it has a 6-inch OLED display panel that curves at the sides (like Samsung’s flagship Galaxy phones) that blend into side railings.
Phones with moving or open parts – buttons or speaker grilles – will ultimately give if you grip them tightly enough. Not the Zero, which feels like a solid, single dense piece of material. So how did Meizu compensate for all those crucial smartphone components?
