Buttonless smartphones are the future
Before going into the details first I’ll clear the doubt everyone has —
Is it possible to make a smartphone buttonless?
Yes, it is possible to make a buttonless smartphone.
In fact there are few smartphones which are buttonless and port less. They are Meizu zero, Vivo Apex 2020, Mi Mix Alpha and Sensel buttonless smartphone. (Except Meizu zero all other smartphones are concept phones).
How is it possible?
That’s simple. Remember those days when the smartphone’s displays were 16:9?
In those displays, the buttons beneath the display are capacitive not physical. In some smartphones Home button used to be physical (specially in Samsung smartphones) but mostly they were capacitive i.e. they work when we touch it.
Similar to these, buttons in the buttonless smartphones are capacitive. Apart from buttonless, all these smartphones are port less i.e. no holes or openings are there throughout the smartphone not even for the charging port and speaker (except Sensel’s prototype).
Here Mi Mix Alpha is an exception because it’s display is wrapped around it’s body so in this smartphone buttons are on the (side) display.
Interesting things about these smartphones are the display and charging.
It doesn’t mean that these smartphones don’t have speakers. The speakers are beneath the display. In short, the display itself acts as a speaker. It works on the principle called Crystal display or Sound on Display.
It means that the display vibrates to produce sound. As we know, vibrating objects produces sound.
For charging the smartphone there is no port, it means the smartphone is charged either using wireless charger or a magnetic charger.
Then, what about Front facing camera?
The answer is Under-display camera but we have no idea when these under-display cameras debut in the market. For me these are the true futuristic smartphones. Isn’t it?
