The Vivo NEX S helped put the Chinese manufacturer on the global map thanks to the market's first pop-up camera. That was almost two years ago and, since then, a lot more of its kind have popped up and then faded from the scene. It doesn't seem like Vivo is willing to let go of that legacy just yet. Proof of that is the newly announced Vivo NEX 3S 5G which will give you a sense of deja vu until you look at its specs sheet.
It's that time of year again, as Vivo has revealed its APEX concept smartphone for 2020. As this is a concept, you won't be able to buy the APEX 2020 and use it as your daily driver, but it could be our clue into some of the technologies Vivo will implement in its consumer smartphones throughout the year. If nothing else, Vivo's APEX concepts show us what kind of flagship we might get if cost wasn't an issue.
It is both ironic and comical that, despite all the advancements in mobile technology, sharing a simple photo between two phones can still be a hassle. Unless you're talking about AirDrop, but that only works between Apple devices. Despite using a single base platform, sharing between Android smartphones from different manufacturers is no easy task. That is why three of China's biggest smartphone makers have agreed to make it easy to share files with just three taps, at least when sharing between Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo phones.
A new listing in the National Intellectual Property Administration in China showed the next big thing from the smartphone company Vivo. In the mix is a variety of new designs for smartphones that may well be released inside the next 12 months. In the collection of drawings in documents submitted to the NIPA, Vivo shows how they'd like to release smartphones with two or four punches, allowing more than a couple options for front-facing cameras, sensors, and odd combinations therein!
5G may still not be as widespread as its proponents would like it to be but smartphone makers are at least picking up the pace of its adoption. That is starting to become more possible thanks to the availability of processors like Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 and 765. Samsung, however, was actually one of the first on that train and also just announced its own premium Exynos 980 with an integrated 5G modem. Ironically, it isn't the first to actually use that in a phone, a title that now belongs to the Vivo X30 and Vivo X30 Pro.
Vivo may now be famous for the first popup camera and, more recently, the first all-glass seamless smartphone but when it comes to mobile photography, its cousin and rival OPPO has most of the accolades. That's especially true when it comes to the area of telephoto cameras, where OPPO was one of the first to flaunt the periscope lens design. Vivo, however, isn't going to take things sitting down and will show off its own camera prowess with the Vivo X30 and its 60x Super Zoom.
Vivo can probably be both blamed and credit for the creation of a new breed of phones that hide their front cameras in an elevating mechanism. Although it didn't exactly become a trend that bigger OEMs copied, phones with popup cameras have proliferated, especially among the Chinese manufacturers. With that many popup cameras popping up in the market, the challenge to the originator has become even greater. On the heels of announcing its NEX 3 5G, Vivo is debuting the new V17 Pro nearly bezel-less phone that takes the popup camera game to a new level.
Vivo will probably be remembered, or blamed, as the one that started the whole popup camera mania. It didn't exactly catch fire but even larger OEMs like ASUS and Samsung have given it their own spin. Vivo, however, has been pushing the envelope of mobile hardware for years now, from deca-core processors to 8 or even 10 GB of RAM. With the Vivo NEX 3, the company is pooling together all its innovations into a high-end phone that looks both new yet feels familiar at the same time.
It seems that the popup camera trend isn't going away any time soon. And if Chinese OEMs are to be asked, it can still be taken even further. OPPO shifted the design a bit with the Reno's shark fin popup, including the main camera's LED flash. Now it seems that Vivo will also be taking it a step further by putting two cameras in that popup mechanism facing forward.
Samsung may have christened its curved edge screen as an Infinity Display but other companies are going to be the ones to take it to the extreme. OPPO was rumored to be jumping on a "waterfall" type screen that Samsung was too afraid to use but now it seems that sibling and rival Vivo will beat it to the punch.. It has officially teased and shown off the Vivo NEX 3 5G's design and has now enlisted the help of YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss to tease what the phone is all about, which, at least for now, revolves around that screen.
Vivo has always been trying to make headlines by being the first in many new mobile technologies but it really gained international fame with the Vivo NEX S. It was the first phone to resort to an elevating camera to get rid of much of the phone's bezel, giving birth to a niche line of phones that did the same. With the Vivo NEX Dual Display Edition and the Vivo APEX 2019, it almost seemed like the phone maker was heading towards a certain direction. The Vivo NEX 3 5G teaser, however, may suggest otherwise and hints at a sort of return to normalcy with at least two key features to still boast of.
Today the glass front and back of the next Vivo phone were leaked by the leakster known as Ice Universe. This person is generally known for leaking the likes of Samsung Galaxy smartphones, but they've occasionally done a Vivo or Vivo-like leak or two, all of which seem to have turned out fairly accurate for final products. Today the leak has to do with what's likely called the Vivo NEX 3 - a device that might just have found the perfect formula for an all-glass phone.