Crazy-looking Vivo Nex 2 could feature two screens and a ‘Lunar Ring’
It looks as though smartphone maker Vivo has opted for yet another over-engineered design to offer up a near bezel-free handset devoid of a notch.
The Vivo Nex S was the first market-ready handset to boast a near bezel-free and completely notch-free screen, but Vivo had to do some serious hoop-jumping to achieve this, including creating a motorised pop-up front-facing camera – an undeniably fragile and costly workaround to say the least.
Other companies have produced similar alternatives such as the Oppo Find X, and incoming handsets from the likes of the Samsung and the recently leaked Huawei Nova 4 show “pinhole” or “punch hole” cameras that simply sit within the footprint of the display.
The teased Vivo Nex 2 takes a different approach entirely.
Based on some spy shots of the phone which previously appeared on Chinese social networking site Weibo, along with a teaser hands-on video from known YouTuber MrWhoseTheBoss, we already have a fairly clear picture of the external hardware that Vivo intends to bring to the table to forgo a notch this time around.
Not dissimilar to the recently launched ZTE Nubia X, the Nex 2 opts for a dual-screen design. This ensures the phone boasts an exceptional screen-to-body ratio with almost the entirety of its front covered by display, while a small second screen resides beneath the camera on the back.
In place of a motorised pop-up solution, as with its predecessor, the Nex 2 appears to simply skip out on a front-facing camera altogether. Users are instead expected to flip the Nex 2 over and use the rear display and camera for all your photographic needs, including selfies and video calling – a solution that will irritate vloggers and selfie fans more than most.
The one remaining camera arrangement is also surrounded by a ring of RGB LEDs, supposedly dubbed the ‘Lunar Ring’. The reason for this intriguing nomenclature remains unclear at this stage but its function as a multicoloured LED notification ring seems like a nice piece of hardware implementation.
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As for the cameras themselves, the Nex 2 is supposedly going to sport a 3D TOF (time-of-flight) arrangement that will facilitate 3D object scanning and the like, a feature not dissimilar from the setup found one Oppo’s freshly-launched R17 Pro/RX17 Pro.
What are your thoughts on the Vivo Nex 2? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
