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Vivo Apex 2019 is a super-cool futuristic phone

The phone features a full-display underscreen fingerprint scanner and no physical buttons. Crazy, I know.

Aloysius Low
Aloysius Low is a Senior Editor at CNET covering mobile and Asia. Based in Singapore, he loves playing Dota 2 when he can spare the time and is also the owner-minion of two adorable cats.
Aloysius Low
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1 of 15 Aloysius Low/CNET

Vivo's Apex 2019 is a concept phone with impressive cool tech such as a full-display underscreen fingerprint sensor, 5G capabilities, no physical buttons or speaker grilles. 

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2 of 15 Aloysius Low/CNET

The Vivo Apex 2019's rounded corners make it comfortable to hold. 

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Instead of physical buttons for the volume and power keys, the phone uses a a combination of capacitive and pressure sensors and a haptic motor to simulate buttons. It's more work than pressing a button, but it works. 

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As you can unlock the phone by scanning your fingerprint anywhere, Vivo has also added apps to the unlock screen. You can scan your fingerprint on top of an app to quickly access it. 

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The rear Magport charger clicks securely to the phone's back, and charges it at 18W.

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You can tap anywhere on the screen to unlock the phone.

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The Vivo Apex 2019 is a looker, but don't expect it to go on sale anytime soon. Vivo did say that it may trickle down its tech to its other phones in the near future. 

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If you look carefully, there's no Type-C port at the bottom. 

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The rear dual-cameras are a 13-megapixel wide-angle and a 12-megapixel shooter, and there's no selfie camera. Vivo didn't add any special features or tricks though, as the focus isn't on the camera tech for this phone. 

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This is what the Magport looks like -- and it feels similar to the old Apple MacBooks. 

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The phone sticks up awkwardly when charging, but it's still usable. 

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There's just a very faint mark of a rectangle at the side to show you where the power "button" is.

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Here's the view from the top. 

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There's no Vivo branding, instead, it's just Apex. 

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The phone comes in three colors: Quartz White, Meteor Gray and Titan Silver.

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