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Meizu Unveils a Smartphone That Does Not Have Any Port, or a SIM Card Slot, or a Button, or Speaker Grill (phonedog.com)
Phone maker Meizu has announced a new phone called "Zero," which doesn't have a headphone jack, or a charging port, or a physical SIM card slot, or any buttons, or a speaker grill. From a report: It doesn't even come with a SIM card slot and buttons you'd usually see on a phone -- the only elements that disturb the surface of its all-display, 7.8mm-thick ceramic unibody are its 12MP and 20MP rear cameras and two pinholes. One is a microphone, while the other is for hard resets. To make up for the lack of ports, Meizu Zero will support Bluetooth 5.0 and a wireless USB connectivity that will reportedly be able to transfer files as fast as the USB 3.0 standard can.
Zero's 5.99-inch QHD OLED screen will act as some sort of a giant speaker and earpiece replacement. It does have a big enough bezel for a 20MP front camera, but its fingerprint reader is completely on-screen. The device, which is powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor, relies on 18W wireless charging due to the lack of a charger port. And it may not have the usual physical buttons, but it does have pressure-sensing ones with haptic feedback on its borders.
Zero's 5.99-inch QHD OLED screen will act as some sort of a giant speaker and earpiece replacement. It does have a big enough bezel for a 20MP front camera, but its fingerprint reader is completely on-screen. The device, which is powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor, relies on 18W wireless charging due to the lack of a charger port. And it may not have the usual physical buttons, but it does have pressure-sensing ones with haptic feedback on its borders.
Also Android phone makers steal from Apple. This is what we call competition, and innovation. Where someone elses competing product has some advantage or feature they will implement it and try to perfect it above what they other guy had. Then the other guy will try to make something better from you.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I see a lot of complaints, but this really isn't unreasonable for many people. Let's take the various points one-by-one:
* No headphone jack.
I never use headphones with my phone, so it's not an issue for me. Many people only use Bluetooth headphones, so it's not an issue for them. Yes, it does eliminate people who really want to use their old headphones. Yes, this is a market-restricting decision.
* Wireless charging only
If you've switched over to wireless charging already, this isn't a big deal. It does mean you're out of luck if you suddenly need to charge when traveling and all you have is a USB port unless you start bringing a wireless charger with you, and that's a pain. We're heading towards the day when wireless charging pads will be as common as USB ports, but we're not there yet. This is a bit ahead of its time, but once Starbucks and the like all have wireless charging pads in the tables, this may become standard.
* No data port.
While the port is the same as the charging port, using the USB port for data transfer is a completely different use, so it should be discussed separately. I can't think of the last time I used a data cable with a phone except when manually installing firmware (which was last week). There's really no reason to expect normal users to need a data cable.
* No SIM card
Well, obviously it has a built-in SIM card, so this is really no removable SIM card. In all the years I've owned a cell phone, I've only needed to move the SIM card once, and that was because the provider didn't send a new one with the new phone. I don't think many consumers care one bit about this. Yes, it is a big issue for international travelers who will want to switch cards.
* Battery, SD Card
This has been beaten to death with other phones already.
Ultimately the question is what do they gain by removing all this stuff. It makes the phone less expensive to make. It may make the phone more reliable. It may make room for the phone to be smaller or have a larger battery. None of that really matters to me.
So the removed features don't bother me much, but I also don't see the advantage for me.
The name is perfect, though. Zero is the amount of money they'll ever get from me for such a design; zero is the amount of interest I have in anyone else imitating them; zero is the amount of respect I have for the company for choosing this path; and zero is the score I give the designers for coming up with this in the first place.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.