Cutting corners: After years of enduring a stagnating smartphone market, manufacturers are turning to more innovative ideas in 2019 as a way of reigniting interest. Hole punch cameras, in-display fingerprint readers, and flexible phones look to be this year's trend, and a new type of design has arrived from China: port/button-free handsets.

Following yesterday's news that the Meizu Zero would lack a headphone jack, USB ports, or any sort of physical buttons, Vivo has announced a similar device in the Apex 2019.

The Apex 2019 comes with an all-glass body that Vivo calls Super Unibody, created using heat bending and CNC machining. In place of the physical buttons are pressure-sensitive capacitive ones, which provide haptic feedback via a "high-definition" linear motor.

Like many current and upcoming handsets, the Apex 2019 uses an in-screen fingerprint scanner, but in this case, the features works across the entire display---no having to place your finger on a particular section. There's also support for two-finger unlocking, thereby beefing up the security.

As it has no physical speakers, the phone uses its screen to produce sound, much like the Meizu Zero. But unlike that phone, charging and connectivity aren't wireless; they're performed using the connector pins on the back. It also uses an eSIM, removing the need for a SIM tray.

Vivo said the phone would come with a Snapdragon 855, dual 2MP + 13MP rear cameras, 12GB of RAM (like the high-end Galaxy S10 model), 512GB of storage, and a 6.39-inch AMOLED display with a 2340 x 1080 resolution. 5G support is also a feature, though it lacks any front-facing cameras.

The Apex 2019 is just a concept, but like the original Apex, which was released as the Nex, it could be launched under a different name with a few changes from what we see here.