Port-less phones: hit or miss?

Foldable phones and 5G-enabled phones stole the show during MWC 2019 back in February. But now, it’s Vivo’s moment to turn heads. This month, the China company just announced the Apex 2019, a concept phone with a working prototype that features no ports and buttons. This is Vivo’s way of seeing the future of smartphones wherein consumers won’t need to use cables anymore for plugging or even use buttons for functions. All user actions will be done on the display.

Vivo is proud of its all-glass unibody designed smartphone which is completely bezel-less. The catch? It lacks a selfie camera. This can be a huge downer to a high portion of consumers as a lot of people use their smartphones for taking selfies and making vlogs.

On the brighter side, the phone joins the new finger-print scanning bandwagon as it sports an optical in-display fingerprint scanner. What Vivo took to the next level in the Apex 2019 though is that the phone can scan a finger in any location across the screen. Current smartphones that support in-display fingerprint scanning technology like Samsung’s S10 lineup can only scan fingerprints at a specific screen location. The Apex 2019 can also scan two fingers at the same time. Vivo claims that this is an added security to the user.

Now with the phone’s lack of ports, where could the speaker grills possibly go? With the help of Screen SoundCasting technology, sound is produced through the vibration of the phone’s display. This breakthrough allows Vivo to forego having speakers on the phone.

Despite the ongoing “bezel war” wherein manufacturers are trying to outshine one another as to which smartphone has the smallest bezels, the power switch and volume controls have always been present on the sides of phones. But in the Apex 2019, Vivo decided to ditch them altogether. According to Money Control, the company incorporates pressure and capacitive sensors on the phone’s side that replace the power button. On the other hand, virtual buttons are found onscreen.

With this concept phone being port-less, one would think that it supports wireless charging. Ironically and unfortunately, it does not. Instead, Vivo makes use of its propriety technology called Magport. It makes use of magnetic connectors at the phone’s back that will lock in place with its wire magnetic charger. Magport is basically like Apple’s Magsafe technology found in the old Macbooks.

In a nutshell, is a port-less phone a viable option for today’s consumers? As of this moment, not yet. Vivo may be right by categorizing its Apex 2019 as merely a concept phone because it is still ahead of its time. A lot of technology improvements can still be made. Right now, USB cables are still being used in all smartphones, and these cables are not likely to go away anytime soon. Furthermore, despite the growth in the usage of wireless headphones and earphones, several entry level to midrange smartphones still sport the classic headphone jack.

We are not, however, too far from the future of having port-less smartphones wherein users completely go wireless. It is indeed after all, the future. What we can do is be on the look out on the progression of the smartphone industry’s current innovations. It is after all an exciting era for this tech market. Start sourcing from manufactures in Asia that offer smartphones with similar trending features and competitive prices here at Global Sources.