Meizu Zero Takes Smartphone Minimalism Overboard With No Buttons Or Ports

by Brandon Hill — Wednesday, January 23, 2019, 10:26 AM EDT

Yesterday, we talked about the Vivo Apex 2019, which took minimalistic design to the extreme with no buttons, no external ports and no front-facing camera. However, that was just a concept. Today we bring you the Meizu Zero, which takes a similar approach but is an actual production device.

As its name implies, the Zero has no physical buttons and no external ports of any kind. Instead, the Zero relies on haptic feedback to enable virtual buttons along the side of the device, which handle on/off and volume control.

The lack of ports also means that there is no SIM card slot, which has been replaced with eSIM technology and there is no USB-C connector. Instead, you will have to charge the device using a Qi-compatible wireless charging pad. 18W fast charging is supported, which is far superior to the 7.5W and 9W wireless charging supported by Apple and Samsung smartphones respectively. These port omissions mean that the ceramic body of the smartphone is smooth and clean with the exception of the dual cameras (20MP and 12MP) and LED flash on the back.

Moving around to the front of the smartphone, you won’t find any unsightly notches, but there are bezels at the top and bottom of the 5.99-inch AMOLED display. That means that the Zero actually has room for a 20MP front-facing selfie camera, unlike the Apex 2019 Concept. The device also incorporates what is called an mSound 2.0 Screen, which uses a piezoelectric speaker to produce sound from the display.

Given that the device has minimal exposure to the elements, it has an IP68 dust/water resistance rating. And one final item of note; the device will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC instead of the new Snapdragon 855.

Unfortunately, Meizu has yet to announce pricing for availability for the Zero.

Tags: MEIZU, meizu zero

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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