The first smartphones without ports aren't from Apple

AppleInsider

Perhaps beating Apple to the punch on where many people see the iPhone headed, two Chinese brands have teased the first smartphones without any physical buttons, or even any connector ports.

The Meizu Zero, on the right.

The one intended for commercial release is the Meizu Zero, which has a 5.99-inch, edge-to-edge AMOLED display with an integrated fingerprint sensor. The phone even lacks a SIM slot and speaker grills, replacing them with an eSIM and piezoelectric transducer, the latter turning the screen into a speaker.

Charging is handled using an 18-watt wireless module, making it the fastest on any smartphone. For comparison, Apple's latest iPhones support 7.5 watts.

Other specifications include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and a dual-lens rear camera with 12- and 20-megapixel sensors. The front notably has a 20-megapixel sensor, sharper than most other selfie cameras.

Meizu hasn't said when the device will ship or at what price.

At February's Mobile World Congress, Vivo will show off the Apex 2019, a conceptual product with "full-display" fingerprint scanning, and "body soundcasting" to replace speaker grills. To provide charging the phone uses a rear-facing magnetic connector, which can also be used for wired data transfer.

The Vivo Apex 2019.

The design lacks a front-facing camera, and Vivo hasn't produced details on the dual-lens rear module. Internally however the device has a Snapdragon 855 processor, 256 gigabytes of storage, and 12 gigabytes of RAM -- more than some MacBooks.

The phone will also be Vivo's first with 5G, using a Qualcomm X50 modem. To make space for it Vivo said it's using a new stacking technique to clear up room on the logic board -- which sounds very much like what Apple did for the iPhone X and iPhone XS.

Apple was one of the first smartphone makers to begin eliminating ports, removing a 3.5mm headphone jack from 2016's iPhone 7. The decision was controversial, since even now many speakers and headphones use 3.5mm connections, not to mention accessories like card readers and external microphones. Until recently the company bundled Lightning-to-3.5mm adapters -- some people are still forced to use them to avoid replacing costly audio gear or connect to their car's aux-in port. A few rival smartphone makers continue to offer phones with 3.5mm as a selling point.

Wireless charging came to iPhones in 2017, as did the removal of a home button with the launch of the iPhone X. There haven't been any rumors of Apple eliminating other physical buttons or the Lightning port though, and indeed some people have simply called on the company to swap Lightning with USB-C as it did with the 2018 iPad Pro. USB-C is functionally similar to Lightning but with much faster transfer speeds and industry-wide support.

gutengel

Good luck trying to troubleshoot or restart that phone

mplsp

Thankfully, Apple has more common sense than this. This is a bad idea for many reasons and falls under the category of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Aside from the many reasons to keep a port, there’s no compelling reason to remove the lightning port besides doing it to prove a point. (Granted, Apple has been known to do that with other things...)

There are a couple people that seem to think their phone would be a thousand times better if it didn’t have any ports and was only wireless - well, now you can have your wireless phone!

edited January 2019

racerhomie3

How would you restore the phone if an update corrupted the firmware?

gatorguy

racerhomie3 said:

How would you restore the phone if an update corrupted the firmware?

You'll probably have to wait until the phone(s) launch to find out. 

I'd guess a certain series of touch events.

edited January 2019

latko

racerhomie3 said:

How would you restore the phone if an update corrupted the firmware?

Maybe a new Edison will (re-)invent a butt plug with cover

edited January 2019

racerhomie3

gatorguy said:

racerhomie3 said:

How would you restore the phone if an update corrupted the firmware?

You'll probably have to wait until the phone(s) launch to find out. 

I'd guess a certain series of touch events.

Hopefully Apple figures this out by 2020.

mrmacgeek

This definitely takes some courage.

soli

racerhomie3 said:

How would you restore the phone if an update corrupted the firmware?

Probably the same way one resets the Apple Watch, if it launched right now. Because that has to be sent in and because they sell so many iPhones I don't see that happening without other contingencies in place to protect Apple's bottom line.

spamsandwich

MplsP said:

Thankfully, Apple has more common sense than this. This is a bad idea for many reasons and falls under the category of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Aside from the many reasons to keep a port, there’s no compelling reason to remove the lightning port besides doing it to prove a point. (Granted, Apple has been known to do that with other things...)

There are a couple people that seem to think their phone would be a thousand times better if it didn’t have any ports and was only wireless - well, now you can have your wireless phone!

I read on another site it has a small paperclip hole to reset the phone. I think the comment was at The Verge.

gatorguy

SpamSandwich said:

MplsP said:

Thankfully, Apple has more common sense than this. This is a bad idea for many reasons and falls under the category of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Aside from the many reasons to keep a port, there’s no compelling reason to remove the lightning port besides doing it to prove a point. (Granted, Apple has been known to do that with other things...)

There are a couple people that seem to think their phone would be a thousand times better if it didn’t have any ports and was only wireless - well, now you can have your wireless phone!

I read on another site it has a small paperclip hole to reset the phone. I think the comment was at The Verge.

Thanks!

appleexposed

Ah so this is the "Apple copied (insert irrelevant vender here)" phone ready for iKnockoff fans.

(As if Apple was never going to do this until this knockoff did.)

Surprised they beat Samsung. Samsung wants to remove the headphone jack sooo bad but scared of backlash after all the Apple bashing. LOL.

MplsP said:

Thankfully, Apple has more common sense than this. This is a bad idea for many reasons and falls under the category of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Aside from the many reasons to keep a port, there’s no compelling reason to remove the lightning port besides doing it to prove a point. (Granted, Apple has been known to do that with other things...)

There are a couple people that seem to think their phone would be a thousand times better if it didn’t have any ports and was only wireless - well, now you can have your wireless phone!

They're only doing it because Apple is going to do it. They wanna scream "FIRST!" and have all the morons think Apple copied THEM.

Like Samsung though, they have no idea WHY it should be done and when Apple "copies" this, it will make sense and be done for a reason.

wood1208

Reliability is most important. I rather wait to see how it works in real world usage for over a year. Fordable phone being circulated on web, same argument, how  reliable ?

ravnorodom

Very cool phone except no front camera means no selfie which means can’t post yourself in social media in this crazy-addictive-self-worshipping age. Good luck! 

gatorguy

ravnorodom said:

Very cool phone except no front camera means no selfie which means can’t post yourself in social media in this crazy-addictive-self-worshipping age. Good luck! 

The Miezu (the first phone discussed) does have a front camera.
"The front notably has a 20-megapixel sensor, sharper than most other selfie cameras."

kevin kee

When Apple removed the headphone jack, it was apocalyptic. Imagine if non iPhone remove every single ports, it's going to be.. oh wait... nothing? Yeah, 'cos it's not iPhone.

bakedbananas

if you fail to see the good when it is palpably present,friends,it’s time to sit before the mirror of the heart

edited January 2019