Vivo Apex (2019) Hands-on Impressions: A Dose of The Possible Future

Apr. 3, 2019

Want a course in research and innovation? A course in trial and error, phone makers? Well, there’s one Chinese giant that’s been pushing the boundaries in smartphone design and I have been singing praises for Vivo to almost everyone who would lend me an ear. The VivoApex conceptthat birthed the pop-up selfie camera and in-display fingerprint sensor was one-upped by adual-displayto keep the taller non-intrusive display intact.

With physical buttons out of the picture, Vivo is nowusing acombination of pressure-sensitive sensors and capacitive touchto mimic the power key and volume buttons. This is kind of similar to Pixel’s Active Edge feature and the power button is even marked on the outside, a dotted demarcation, visible to the eye.

There’s also a linear motor in tow here to make the keypresses feel more substantial and life-like, with haptic feedback. This is a great idea to make the outside of the smartphone look seamless (and don’t worry, Vivo says they work even when the phone is off and the system fails), but I have a couple of qualms with the buttons. They were pretty annoying for me in daily use.

First of all, you cannot feel any of the buttons, so you don’t really know where to press when the screen is off and the on-screen bubble hints are not visible. I didn’t really like that at first, but I got used to their position in a couple of days. Secondly, the pressure-sensitive buttons are really sensitive andaccidental touch is a huge problem.

This is the same panel, both in diagonal size and resolution, which we have seen on Vivo’sNex Dual-display Editionand it’s gorgeous. The color reproduction is excellent, there’s no notch or cutout to diminish the experience in any way (even though I don’t mind it) and I have come to revere the company’s decision in this segment.

The pogo pins on the smartphone sit flush with the glass panel and the charging connector just snaps to them when you bring it close. Rupesh loves this simple design change and he kept himself entertained with it when we was using the smartphone, as you can see below:

This mechanism, however, has a minor imperfection since the smartphone will be sitting raised from the surface when plugged in for charging. This can be annoying when a user tries to unlock and use the smartphone as it would keep rocking at its place.

SEE ALSO:Vivo Dual-Display Edition First Impressions