Smartphone brands have been experimenting with the idea of developing a phone with a portless and unified body for several years now. The first being Vivo with their APEX 2019 concept phone and then Xiaomi earlier this year with its unnamed quad-curved waterfall display prototype. Now, it appears that OPPO may be joining their ranks as well with their own portless phone.
According to Chinese leakster Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the alleged device will feature pressure-sensitive buttons on its side, an under-display front camera, and also a hidden rear camera setup. In regards to the latter, it will sport the same electrochromic technology that is featured on the OnePlus Concept One smartphone.
Being a portless smartphone, most would assume that it would only feature wireless charging, but that isn’t the case, surprisingly. Digital Chat Station says that the handset will still feature a USB interface that is “hidden by a special structural design” – implying some sort of special mechanism used to hide and reveal the phone’s charging port if the user wishes to charge it via conventional wired means.
The expected date of unveiling and details of its hardware specifications are unknown at this time. Additionally, it’s not specified whether this alleged device is an actual production model, or a fully functional prototype ala the OPPO X 2021 rollable smartphone. Although there is a chance that it may be the latter, as the brand has yet to showcase any of the aforementioned tech, especially an update or evolution of its 2019 under-display tech.
(Source: Digital Chat Station [Weibo])
