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Google brings dedicated Assistant buttons to more phones
Google Assistant buttons won't just be limited to a handful of LG phones this year. The internet giant has widened its partnerships to add dedicated buttons to a whole range of handsets in 2019, including returning partner LG (on phones like the G8 ThinQ, V50 ThinQ and K40) and Nokia (3.2 and 4.2). Phones from Xiaomi (Mi Mix 3 5G and Mi 9), Vivo (V15 Pro) and TCL are also in line for Assistant buttons later on. Google expects over 100 million phones to ship with a hardware shortcut to its AI helper, and that's not including Samsung phone owners who remap their Bixby buttons.
Vivo’s notch-free V15 Pro has a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera
Vivo has unveiled its second smartphone with a pop-up selfie camera, but this time, it's far from being a gimmick. The V15 Pro, first revealed earlier this month, packs a front facing camera with no less than 32-megapixels, surely one of the highest-resolution models out there. The back three-camera array isn't chopped liver either, delivering up to 48 megapixels. To top off the tech-fest, the V15 Pro has a 6.4-inch OLED display and fifth-generation in-screen fingerprint sensor.
Apple wasn't the only smartphone brand struggling in China this fall
Apple wasn't joking around when it warned that the Chinese smartphone market gave it grief in the fall. IDC estimated that iPhone shipments fell just shy of 20 percent year-over-year toward the end of 2018, hitting 11.8 million. It's the third consecutive year of declines, the analyst group said, blaming this year's drop on a combination of higher prices and relatively modest updates. Customers just weren't in as much of a rush to upgrade as they were in years past. Throw in China's economic woes and stiff competition from local rivals and it's not shocking that iPhone sales took a dive.
Vivo's new phones include a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera
Chinese electronics manufacturer Vivo announced today that its upcoming Vivo 15 Pro smartphone will feature a 32-megapixel pop-up selfie camera. The phone will be the company's second crack at elevating front-facing camera and will be officially announced on February 20th, just ahead of the annual Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain.
Vivo's all-glass phone has no ports and a full-screen fingerprint reader
2019 may be the year of flexible mobile devices, but judging by a couple of announcements from China this week, it appears that we may also be expecting the disappearance of holes and ports on smartphones. Following yesterday's Meizu Zero, today Vivo has announced its latest concept 5G device, the APEX 2019, which is yet another smartphone with almost no holes. I say "almost" because there's still a tiny microphone slit below the screen, but other than that, you won't find any USB port, speaker grill or SIM tray around this shiny slab of glass.
Vivo's all-screen NEX goes dual-display to ditch the pop-up camera
While Vivo is still a largely exotic brand for many of us, you may remember it as the first manufacturer to both tease and release a truly bezel-less smartphone. And of course, Vivo's NEX S gained extra street cred thanks to its pop-up selfie camera plus in-display fingerprint reader. Just months later, the Chinese company is back with a follow-up model dubbed NEX Dual Display Edition, and as the name implies, it packs a screen on both sides of the phone, just so that it can ditch the pop-up camera -- a cool but physically vulnerable feature -- while still avoiding the notch on the main screen.
Vivo's all-screen NEX S is a frustrating glimpse of the future
More than anything, Vivo's NEX S is a fascinating machine. From a distance, it seems like any other big-screened smartphone. Look more closely, though, and the ambition becomes strikingly clear. An in-display fingerprint sensor? A pop-up selfie camera? This is no ordinary phone. I've been using it for a few days now -- or trying to, anyway -- and it's an excellent example of a Chinese company embracing new technologies and taking risks. That said, if you were thinking about importing one from China for the sheer novelty of it all, you should really hold off.
Vivo’s Nex is a true all-screen phone with a pop-out selfie camera
If Lenovo's failure to deliver a genuine full-screen display for the Z5 left you feeling burned, Vivo's flagship Nex could ease the pain. The Nex is making the transition from concept phone to retail product -- in China, at least -- and boasts an impressive 91.24 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Vivo's all-screen concept phone looks like it will become a reality
It looks like Vivo is going to push forward with its APEX FullView concept phone we saw at Mobile World Congress this year. The handset with barely-there bezels, pop-up selfie cam and in-display fingerprint sensor will apparently be unveiled June 12th in China, according to The Verge. The manufacturer teased the smartphone with a pair of commercials for its upcoming Russia World Cup sponsorship, showing off the massive screen and hidden selfie camera. An exact release date isn't known, but that should change next month.
China's smartphone market sees its largest drop in five years
There's no question that China's smartphone industry is in a tough spot, but it's apparently worse than expected. Canalys has estimated that smartphone shipments in the country plummeted 21 percent year-over year in the first quarter of 2018 -- the steepest drop since 2013. Almost everyone saw their shipments go down, with Oppo and Vivo (both owned by BBK) taking the worst hit with a 10 percent drop. Gionee, Meizu and Samsung shipped less than half as many devices. Even Huawei, the clear frontrunner, grew by a mere 2 percent.
Vivo’s all-screen concept phone hides a pop-up selfie cam
When I think of funky, ambitious smartphones, I don't usually think of the name Vivo. That began to change after seeing a phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor -- the world's first, actually -- a month ago at CES. Now, after playing with the company's APEX FullView concept phone, it's clear that Vivo is more clever than we've given it credit for.
China's smartphone market shrinks for the first time in 9 years
For a while, it seemed like the Chinese smartphone market was an infinite growth machine. Companies would have rough patches, but the overall field would always be on the up and up. Well, those days are over. IDC estimates that Chinese smartphone shipments declined 4.9 percent in 2017 -- the first drop since 2009. The analyst firm pinned it primarily on "minor upgrades" to Chinese phones that weren't enough to spur a wave of new buyers. We'd add that the market is maturing. Much of the rapid growth from past years was sparked by a burgeoning Chinese middle class buying its first smartphones. Many of the people who could afford smartphones have them, and they aren't always in a rush to upgrade.
Vivo's in-display fingerprint reader won't play nice with screen protectors
It's only been two weeks since Vivo's latest attempt with an in-display fingerprint reader on a smartphone, and even though it didn't work perfectly for us, the company thinks it's ready for prime time. In China, consumers will soon be able to use this cool feature on the new Vivo X20 Plus UD, which is available today for 3,598 yuan or about $560, and it'll be shipping from February 1st. As the "UD" in the name implies, the fingerprint reader here has been moved from the rear side to underneath the display, courtesy of Synaptics' Clear ID sensor.
This phone's in-display fingerprint sensor is a taste of things to come
I just picked up a Vivo phone and laid my thumb on its screen, and voila: I unlocked it. That might not sound like much, but titans like Apple and Samsung have reportedly struggled to squeeze fingerprint sensors beneath their own displays. And yet here I am, with a prototype phone from a company most have never heard of, touching a finger to glass and watching a phone come to life.
ASUS rounds out its all-in-one lineup with the Vivo AiO V272 and V222
ASUS might be better-known for its laptops, but let's not forget that the Taiwanese company churns out some solid all-in-one desktops, too. Sadly, despite announcing two new models today -- the Vivo AiO V272 and V222 -- ASUS has been pretty tight-lipped with respect to specs. Consider the V272: as the model number suggests, it packs a 27-inch multitouch display and it produces 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut while offering a 178-degree field of view. Fueling the fun is one of Intel's eighth-generation Core I7 chipsets, and while this wasn't meant to be a full-blown gaming machine, the discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics should get through you a few rounds of Overwatch without too much trouble.
Qualcomm's new fingerprint sensors work underwater
Hot on the heels of Apple's plans to reinvent its iPhone's fingerprint reader, Qualcomm looks set to position itself at the forefront of the fingerprint sensor market. It claims that it will be one of the first, if not the first, companies to produce under-display sensors. Unveiling its plans at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, the company revealed that its next-gen fingerprint sensors will use ultrasonic technology that can be fitted under displays, glass and metal, and can scan through OLED displays up to 1200um -- something we got to see in action for ourselves at Vivo's booth.
Vivo beats Apple to an under-display fingerprint scanner
There have been rumours of Apple exploring under-display fingerprint scanning technology, but you probably didn't expect the first of such demos to come from China. At MWC Shanghai, Qualcomm announced its latest ultrasonic fingerprint solution, with the new highlights being its integration underneath OLED displays (up to 1.2mm-thick), as well as working fine even when the device is immersed in water. As before, this tech can tolerate dirt and sweat on skin better than its capacitive counterpart, and it also works underneath metal and glass (duh) but with increased penetration -- up to 800um for glass and up to 650um for aluminum, as opposed to the old 400um for either material.
Apple builds an R&D center in China to survive a tough market
There's no question that China isn't as much of a money maker for Apple as it once was. However, it's not about to quit the country -- if anything, it's settling in for the long haul. The company has unveiled plans to build a Chinese research and development center by the end of the year. Just what it'll work on isn't evident at this stage, although it's part of an overall increased investment in Apple's second-largest market.
The smartphone market is peaking
It's not just Apple taking a tumble in the smartphone market, apparently. IDC has published estimates for first quarter market share which not only suggest that shipments are virtually flat (up a mere 0.2 percent), but that the mobile landscape is changing rapidly. While Apple was the only company in the top five manufacturers to see a big hit, Samsung shrank slightly as well... and even the Chinese contingent is shaking things up a bit. Huawei is still sitting comfortably in third place, but Lenovo and Xiaomi are out of the top ranks -- instead, it's the popular but not-quite-household names like Oppo and Vivo (both owned by BBK) that are storming up the charts.
Vivo Xplay5 boasts 6GB RAM and a familiar curved screen
If you need an excuse to acquire a new exotic Chinese smartphone, then how about 6GB of RAM? Not only is Vivo's new Xplay5 the first mobile device to announce this spec, but it's also the second non-Samsung device — following the BlackBerry Priv — to pack a screen that's curved on both sides. Judging by its familiar metallic design, you'd easily think that the Xplay5 is the bastard child of the Galaxy S6 Edge (front) and the iPhone (back) after a one night stand in Dongguan (the S7 Edge's chamfer isn't as shiny). Despite the unfortunate similarities, this is still a surprisingly decent product in terms of hardware and specs -- much like how its predecessor, the Xplay3S, managed to wow us a little over two years ago.
