The Meizu Zero takes phone trends to the natural conclusion of no ports or buttons

Phones have been shedding ports and buttons for a while now. Headphone jacks are going extinct on most devices, and home and back buttons have been replaced on nearly every iOS and Android phone with software UIs. The new Meizu Zero is the first to take that trend to its natural endpoint: it has no ports, buttons, or holes that mar the exterior of the device.

According to Meizu, the Zero has “no buttons, no speakers holes, no SIM card slot, [and] no charging port.” Most of the exterior of the device is a seamless slab of ceramic (an effect that’s only slightly ruined by a protruding camera bump on the back and what appear to be microphone holes on the bottom).

The Zero is proudly advertised as “the world’s first holeless phone,” so Meizu has had to figure out several workarounds for the usual functions on a phone. Hence, the 5.99-inch AMOLED display, which, notably for a 2019 smartphone, has a Galaxy S9 chin and top bezel instead of a notch. It features an under-glass fingerprint sensor as well as Meizu’s “mSound 2.0” technology that allows it to function as a speaker. 

Charging is completely wireless, too. Meizu is promising speeds of up to 18W through its own “Super mCharge Wireless” technology, which would far surpass the 7.5W spec Apple uses and the 9W speeds offered by Samsung.

There are no buttons, but Meizu is using a haptic feedback system to offer virtual buttons on the side to turn the phone on and off and to adjust the volume. And eSIM technology replaces the SIM card slot. Naturally, due to the fact that there are essentially no holes on the outside of the device, it also has an IP68 rating against water and dust.

There’s still a lot Meizu hasn’t announced about the Zero, including what the specs will look like outside of the fact that the Zero will use last year’s Snapdragon 845 processor. We’ll have to wait to try out the phone in person before any judgment can be made about how well these new technologies actually work. 

Meizu hasn’t announced a price or release date for the Zero, but with Mobile World Congress right around the corner, we might get some information soon.

The Article was Published on : TheVerge