With its notch-free display and eye-catching Elevating Front Camera, the new NEX smartphone is the latest proof that Vivo intends to compete at the highest level when it comes to smartphone innovation. Actually, “compete” is too soft a word—with NEX, Vivo has signaled that it’s not afraid to challenge the status quo when it comes to groundbreaking technology and stunning design. Sure NEX has killer specs, but by shattering industry norms, NEX has made technology exciting again.
Characteristically for Vivo, NEX was conceived in direct response to the needs and desires of consumers. According to IDC, phablets (smartphones with a screen size of 5.5 inches to 7 inches) will far outpace total market growth by climbing from 611 million units in 2017, and 1 billion units in 2021. Simply put, consumers want a smartphone with a larger screen like NEX. NEX is the smartphone consumers want without sacrificing any of the user experience, with power to burn and a screen to do it justice.
According to Alex Feng, Senior Vice President of Vivo, “The new NEX series represents our commitment to the ultimate pursuit of innovation. From the bezel-less design to the high-performance hardware, NEX shows Vivo’s dedication to bringing true innovations to consumers. NEX will usher in an entirely new concept of the smartphone for today’s users, allowing them to experience the future and innovations beyond the imagination.”
Most consumers got their first taste of NEX’s innovations via Vivo’s FIFA World Cup™ TVCs, which expressed the company’s global ambition to have NEX inspire the millions of people following the matches around the world. Thanks to its high-tech look and feel, NEX projects an air of futuristic confidence, a smartphone that breaks boundaries, and by extension, will help its customers do the same.
That’s not just marketing mumbo-jumbo, because NEX delivers a complete package inside and out. Indeed, Vivo has loaded NEX with a vast array of technology that works incredibly well together.
Consider that bezel-less screen—it sets a new standard for smartphones with a whopping 91.24 percent screen-to-body ratio. There’s just 5.08 mm of bezel at the bottom of the device, 2.16 mm at the top, and an almost invisible 1.71 mm on each side. While NEX boasts a full 6.59-inch 19.3:9 aspect ratio AMOLED display, the smartphone’s body is as compact as an ordinary 5.68-inch device. This design is just one of many new technologies that give NEX a futuristic feel.
One of the ways in which NEX engineers managed to put so much high-quality screen real estate without a notch into the hands of users was to hide the front camera within the smartphone’s body. When you want to take a selfie, the 8MP camera lens elevates from the top of the smartphone in just one second, and disappears automatically when you’re done. This never-before-seen bit of technology and design in NEX frees up space to make room for a more immersive viewing experience and is a step towards those devices we dreamed of in science-fiction movies.
Also enabling this sleek and futuristic design is the new Screen SoundCasting Technology, that eliminates the need for an earpiece by turning the entire screen into a speaker. On top of that, In-Display Fingerprint Scanning allows users to unlock the device directly on the screen without the need for a physical fingerprint pad. Vivo has pioneered In-Display Fingerprint Scanning Technology, and the latest generation has improved in both speed and accuracy. Moving these key pieces of the smartphone into completely new places shows how committed Vivo is to challenging the status quo.
When it comes to AI, Vivo is already ahead of the curve — NEX’s voice assistant and image-identification software allow users to use voice and visuals to access applications and perform commands for greater convenience. According the IDC, spending on AI will top $19 billion in 2018, so Vivo’s business and product instincts are right on the money. For Vivo, implementing AI has meant investing strongly in research and development — its engineers are working on it as we speak — as well as forging strategic partnerships. Both have their place, and both approaches have contributed to the success of NEX.
Vivo’s investment in new technologies and its willingness to defy conventions and pursue a fully bezel-less design strongly indicates that Vivo could be one of the first smartphone manufacturers to embrace 5G. Not long after the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shared its vision of 5G with the world in 2015, Vivo began research into 5G. By 2016, Vivo had set up its 5G Research Institute in Beijing, making it one of the largest device providers in the 3GPP group to be actively working on 5G technologies. Just in the past year, Vivo has begun 5G antenna and frequency-related development to further accelerate the pace of its 5G innovation.
Remember, this is the company that just released NEX with its culmination of the latest mobile technologies. Will we see 5G and even further enhanced AI in NEX’s successor model? With this impressive buffet of futuristic technologies, it makes you wonder what could be next for the NEX series?