New Vivo flagship to be announced on June 12

MANILA, Philippines – Vivo first unveiled a bezel-free notch-less concept phone with a retractable camera and an in-display fingerprint sensor at this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) last February.

When it was revealed, the company said they did not have plans to release the concept phone known as the Vivo Apex. Plans, however, seem to have changed with leaked photos and promotional images and videos hinting that Vivo could be pulling the curtain on a brand new flagship that looks to be the production versio of the Apex.

GSMArena first reported that Vivo sent them promo materials that show what they believe is the market-ready version of the Apex beside a June 12, 2018 date, dubbed as the Vivo Nex. The June 12 date points to its official announcement at an event to be held in Shanghai, China.

While it’s not confirmed whether the Nex is the Apex, for the online community, this is the belief being held. A week from now, the world will know for certain. 

Going by the images that surfaced online, it looks to be keeping most of what was highlighted in the Apex concept phone, specifically an almost bezel-less display with a 91% screen-to-body ratio. This was achieved by repositioning the front-facing camera,  earpiece, and fingerprint scanner, often contained within the top and bottom bezels.

The Apex’s novel solution had been to hide the front-facing camera in a pop-up retractable mechanism on top of the phone while the fingerprint scanner is built in into the screen. An advertisement that Vivo run for the World Cup, of which they are a major sponsor, showed a phone with the pop-up mechanism:

Leaked specs going around online point to a similar set of specs between the concept Apex and the premium variant of the Nex: a Snapdragon 845 chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of built-in storage. It is expected to sell for 4,999 Chinese yuan or roughly P40,989.

Meanwhile, a secondary non-premium variant will not have the pop-up camera. Instead, it will situate the selfie sensor on the chin, which is said to be just thick enough to contain it. The expected specs are a Snapdragon 660 chip, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage, and a price of 3,798 Chinese yuan or an estimated P31,141. – Rappler.com

*1 Chinese yuan = P8.20