Forget the Galaxy S9: this phone has a true bezel-free display with a hidden pop-up camera

And the fingerprint scanner is in the screen, too

Vivo Apex pop-up camera

The Vivo Apex phone is showing the iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy S9 how it should be done: its screen runs from edge to edge with no annoying notch. The selfie camera is hidden inside the phone and pops up when you want to use it. And the fingerprint sensor is in the screen.

It was one of the coolest things we saw at Mobile World Congress this year but, alas, it was just a concept phone. Or was it? Now it looks like it is going to be made a reality that we can own.

According to Android Authority, Vivo is set to release the Apex smartphone to the public later this year, or at the very latest early in 2019.

When the phone is built, it may have even better specs than the concept model, which featured a 5.99-inch OLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack and that 91 percent screen coverage thanks to the near-invisible 4.3mm bezel.

Pricing for the Vivo Apex has not been announced but don’t expect a phone this cutting edge to come cheap. All that said, if it does take until next year to arrive, the big names like Apple and Samsung may have already added these features to their phones by then.

Luke Edwards

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.