Vivo Apex 2020 concept smartphone: The mobile phone of the future?

Last year, mobile phone manufacturer Vivo already presented the Apex 2019 as a concept smartphone for the future. Last week, the manufacturer used the opportunity to post teaser pictures of the new Vivo APEX 2020 concept smartphone. Today the website went live and unveils a concept smartphone with in-display camera and 60W wireless charging! Unfortunately this will never become reality.

Finally: Camera under the display!

Vivo adopts the waterfall design of the Vivo NEX 3, which was released last year, meaning that the display runs completely across both sides left and right, similar to the Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha, for example. So in the end, you only have two screen edges, namely top and bottom. To achieve this, the manufacturer relies on a 6.45″ curved display that bends around both corners by a 120° angle. As already announced with the Apex 2019, one can see the future of smartphones completely without buttons and “holes”. Vivo uses the touchscreen on the side as power and volume buttons, which is also pressure-sensitive.

But the great speciality and what Vivo has been working on for quite some time is the front camera in or under the display! Vivo has succeeded in making the part of the display relevant to the camera six times more permeable than the rest of the panel, which means that a “4-in-1 Super-Pixel Chip” manages to take high-quality photos. This saves any notch, pop-up or hole-punch camera. This is what we’ve been waiting for, right?

In addition, the fingerprint sensor is in the display, which this time is supposed to take up even more space and can be used almost on the entire screen.

Camera with micro gimbal

The view of the back shows rather a felt understatement. Only two cameras are visible, vertically arranged in a circle, similar to the OnePlus 7T. The upper camera is a zoom camera with 5 to 7.5x zoom. For this, Vivo apparently combines four different lenses, whereby the camera with the zoom can be used for both photos and videos.

The other camera below is the actual main camera with a 48 megapixel resolution. This works with an improved image stabilisation, which Vivo calls micro-gimbal. In contrast to a normal optical image stabilizer, this results in twice as good stabilization of video recordings. This micro gimbal technology also supports the night mode in order to ensure the most “quiet” recording possible during long exposures.

Vivo announces two new software-based camera features. With Instant Photobomb Removal you can automatically retouch unwanted people in the background of an image. According to Vivo, this also works with complex backgrounds and not only with monochrome backgrounds. Added to this is Voice Tracking Auto-Focus, which automatically focuses on the protagonist of a YouTube video, for example, because one of the three integrated microphones only works with the auto-focus.

The fastest wireless charging in the world

The Xiaomi Mi 10 still offers the world’s fastest Qi charge at 30W, but in theory the new concept smartphone from Vivo outdoes this with twice the power. The Vivo Apex 2020 supports a proud 60W wireless charging called Vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge. This takes 20 minutes to fully charge a 2,000 mAh battery. This should result in about 50 minutes charging time for a complete charge of a 4.000 mAh battery.

Assessment

Unfortunately, unfortunately, the Vivo Apex 2020 is still only a concept smartphone, but it looks much more advanced than the Vivo Apex 2019. Similar to the OnePlus Concept One, for example, a concept smartphone is there to show what is possible and what could soon be suitable for mass use. So the Vivo Apex 2020 is not for sale in this way, but some features could be integrated into the next smartphones in the course of the year or next year. Here, we are of course especially excited about the in-display camera.

What do you think about these innovations? Do you wish for these camera features or do you think such a zoom is unnecessary?