Vivo Apex 2020 5G Concept: Turning Fiction into Reality

In the last couple of years, we have witnessed many developments and changes in the smartphone industry. Development in the smartphone industry seemed stagnant for a while but it appears, it has gained some speed again. In the last couple of years, we went from thick bezel display to notch display, to water-drop to almost bezel-less display, shifting from 4G to 5G, fingerprint sensor in the back of the phone to in-display one and many more. Foldable phones like Z flip, Moto Razr, Huawei Mate Xs were only seen as fiction a couple of years ago and now it has turned into reality. If someone, 5 years ago, said that foldable phones with the foldable display will exist in 2020, I wouldn’t have believed that. But bendable phones exist in 2020, so is the in-display fingerprint reader which was also part of the fiction.

Vivo has always been ambitious with the ‘Apex’ series

One other feature, that has remained a fiction, for now, is the in-display image sensor. But it seems that this sci-fi feature is soon changing into reality. Thanks to Vivo. Vivo via its ‘Apex’ series has brought many fictions into reality and with the same, Vivo is getting ready to bring the in-display camera into reality. For those who don’t know Apex series is the concept series phones from Vivo. Vivo Apex 2020 5G will be the third iteration of the phone and would make the fictional feature, a reality.

Before going forward, some information about the past two iterations of the phone is in order. The first Vivo Apex was launched in 2018 and had a first full clean screen with no notch. This was possible due to the popup camera built in the phone. Vivo Apex from last year built more on the 2018 version of the phone and came up with a phone with no buttons. This ‘no button phone’ has also been part of the fantasy for a while.

Again, before going to the main attraction of the phone, lets clear specs of the phone out of the way. The Apex 2020 5G is powered by a Snapdragon 865 SoC with enabled 5G. For the memory, the phone would come in one option only: 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. On the connectivity side, it would support 5G and WIFI 6. No physical ports for data transfer, not even for charging, just like its predecessor.

Coming to the design, the Vivo Apex 2020 5G is mostly made from glass and weighs around 169 grams. Front of the phone features a 6.45-inch curved display which is a FullScreen Waterfall display and bends at 120 degrees on both sides of the screen. Vivo calls this panel a 120-degree FullView Edgeless Display, which is an ultra bezel-less display. Due to this bend, there are no bezels to be seen. On the right curve, the display has a capacitive touch area which acts as the phone’s lock button as there are no physical buttons.

OIS out, Gimbal-like stabilization in!

For the camera department, the Vivo Apex 2020 5G sports many out of the ordinary features one of which is a 48MP sensor with Gimbal-like hardware stabilization. Optical Image Stabilization seems obsolete now. Not only that the camera will be able to offer 5x-7.5x continuous zoom and also with the real-time focus. The camera utilizes a periscopic structure with a 4-group lens combination on which two lenses are fixed while the other two are movable.

Wait, there is more, the phone will also come with Instant photobomb removal tech, thanks to the company’s computing technology. Using this feature, one can remove a photo bomber just by selecting the target in the viewfinder after which the computing does its magic.

Finally coming to the juicier part of the phone. The Vivo Apex 2020 5G has no cutouts, punch-holes or speaker grills, or even the selfie cameras (it is there, just not visible from the outside). For the speakers, Vivo is using third-gen Screen SoundCasting Technology using the display as its speaker. And for the selfie camera, instead of using a popup module like the 2018 version, Apex 2020, the Apex 2020’s selfie camera is hidden under the display. In the picture below, we see no notch, cutout or popup module, instead, light is passing through the display to the camera which is a 16MP selfie snapper.

This in-display camera is possible due to the use of the screen pixel layout on the screen, designed by Vivo. This screen allows six times more light to the sensors than the panels used for the in-display fingerprint sensor. The sensor also uses 4-in-1 super pixel binning technology to capture high-quality photos.

We are not finished with the features yet, there is more. As mentioned earlier, the phone has no physical ports not even for charging. So the device certainly charges wirelessly. But that’s old tech and very slow as well isn’t it? No worries, Apex 2020 5G has another feature in its sleeve, 60W wireless charging. The phone features Vivo’s 60W Super FlashCharge technology which the company claims will charge a 2000mAh battery in 20 minutes.

Has it tickled your fancy? It definitely has mine. Seeing all the concepts and features of the newly announced Vivo Apex 2020 5G phone, the future of the smartphone seems bright. Being a concept phone it is unlikely, we will see the Vivo Apex 2020 5G in retail shops any time soon or to be real, ever. But we will surely be seeing these awesome features in many upcoming Vivo devices.

Vivo Apex 2020 5G Quick Specs

Display: 6.45-inch FullScreen Waterfall display
Processor: Snapdragon 865 SoC
Memory: 12GB RAM/256GB internal storage
Front Camera: 16 MP
Rear Camera: 48MP + 16MP
Battery: Unspecified capacity
Charging: 60 Watt wireless charging
Other Features: 3.5mm audio jack, 5G, dual SIM support, Bluetooth 5.1 and in-screen fingerprint sensor.