This the Vivo Apex 2019, the next concept phone by Chinese mobile maker Vivo, which allegedly will have no seams or holes whatsoever — a ‘soap bar made of metal.’



If true, it will be the triumph of minimalism and the dreams of the world’s most famous living industrial designer.



(Image credit: Ben Geskin)

Once upon a time, Apple chief designer and aesthetic father of the iPhone Jony Ive said that his holy grail was a phone that was a pure slab, a display devoid of any seams or distractions. While Apple is still battling notches, it seems that Vivo is about to make his ideal phone come true.

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This render of the Vivo Apex 2019 was made by reliable phone artist Ben Geskin — who usually works from reliable information or CAD models. It shows a phone apparently with no seams whatsoever. Its curves are very large and smooth. The screen is completely clean. Only two camera lenses and a flash are on the back, completely flush with the surface of the phone.



These features have been confirmed by phone rumormeister Ice Universe, who says that Vivo’s upcoming concept smartphone will have no buttons, no holes on the side, no holes in the screen. “It is like metal soap,” he says in a tweet, “is it science fiction?” Previously he hyped it by saying it is like nothing we’ve ever seen.

If true, we can assume that this phone will have no ports whatsoever. No USB-C. No minijack. No speaker grills. That means that it will charge wirelessly and use Bluetooth audio. Vivo has used surface vibration to produce audio in the past, but it’s unclear how well this can work.I can’t imagine how they are getting rid of the microphone hole… Unless this is the first telepathic phone ever. Like Ice Universe says, it sounds like sci-fi indeed.

But if there’s a company that is not afraid of trying new crazy stuff, that’s Vivo. That’s exactly why it went viral first time with the Apex 2018, a concept phone that showed a true full-screen screen devoid of any notch thanks to a pop-up selfie camera module. That experimental model resulted in the commercial Vivo Nex S. Recently, the company made another splash with the follow up, the dual-screen Vivo Nex 2

I don’t know how Vivo is going to pull this one off but, if it is all true, there is no doubt the Vivo Apex 2019 will be the most beautiful phone of 2019 and the apex of phone design. No pun intended. Probabilities of me getting one whenever it hits the streets: 99.99%. We will know this Thursday, when Vivo presents it in China.