MWC 2018: Vivo APEX Concept Phone with Retracting Selfie Camera and ‘Half-Screen’ Fingerprint sensor

At the start of 2018, Vivo launched its X20 UD device which becomes the world’s first phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Now, Vivo has taken it to the next level with its APEX concept phone showcased at the MWC 2018 in Barcelona.

The main high points of the Vivo Apex are its half-screen in-display fingerprint sensor (well almost, not exactly half), a full view display with 98 percent screen-to-body ratio and a retractable front camera.

Vivo APEX Key Highlights

• Imagine touching your phone screen anywhere while pulling it out of your pocket to unlock it! Well, we aren’t quite there yet, but Vivo Apex is a start. The phone has a wide rectangle screen space where you can touch to scan your fingers.
• Selfie camera is the only remaining obstacle for true, uniform bezel-less screens. With Apex, Vivo has also demonstrated a new solution to the selfie camera problem. The front camera pops up from the top edge when required.

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If you remember the Vivo X20 Plus, the fingerprint sensor was slotted near the bottom of the display, however, with the APEX, you get almost the entire bottom half of the screen to read your fingerprint. The visible benefit of having a bigger fingerprint sensor area is that it becomes easier to easier to authenticate.

In its demo at MWC 2018, Vivo also demoed a two finger scanning mode which certainly makes sense for better security. Maybe going forward a two-tier security is possible.

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The Vivo APEX comes with a 5.99-inch FullHD+ flexible OLED display with 18:9 aspect ratio. But none of those attributes is nearly as important as the flexible OLED platform Vivo is demoing. Like the X20UD Vivo mount microchips right on the flexible circuit board, which allows the concept phone to flaunt an almost bezel-free look. It just has 1.8mm bezels on three sides and 4.3mm at the bottom.

Since it comes with an almost bezel-less design, Vivo has introduced a retracting 8-megapixel front camera. The camera module is obscured within the body. As you switch the camera from rear to the front from within the App, the selfie camera pops up in just 0.8 seconds.  As soon as you done clicking selfie’s, the front camera retracts back automatically. Vivo replaces standard earpiece, with Screen SoundCasting Technology, which vibrates screen to produce sound.