Meizu Zero is the first smartphone with no charging port, buttons, or speakers

Ben Schoon | Jan 23 2019 - 7:09 am PT

Since the loss of the headphone jack, many have assumed that we’ll eventually see a device which drops each and every port. Today, that’s exactly what’s happening with the arrival of the Meizu Zero, the first smartphone without a single cutout.

Described by Meizu as “holeless,” the Zero is designed as a simple metal and glass slab which doesn’t have a port for charging, obviously not a headphone jack either, and also no buttons, speaker grills, or even a SIM slot. How does it make up for those losses?

By dropping the buttons, Meizu takes a note from HTC by using touch capacitive sensors. There aren’t any protruding prompts to make those spaces feel like actual buttons, though. To replace the speaker, the Meizu Zero uses a piezoelectric transducer to turn the 5.99-inch AMOLED display into a speaker.

Other replacements include the SIM card slot. In place of a standard SIM, Meizu is using eSIM technology, similar to what we’ve seen with Google’s Pixel 2/3. There’s also an in-display fingerprint sensor.

https://youtu.be/j-kM8FohVy0

As for the charging port, Meizu has implemented fast wireless charging on the Zero. The phone can charge at 18W wirelessly, the fastest on any smartphone currently. Data transfers are taken care of by WiFi and mobile data.

Rounding out the spec sheet is a 20MP front-facing camera and a 12MP/20MP dual-camera array on the rear. There’s also a Snapdragon 845 chipset under the hood, but Meizu has yet to specify the storage or RAM specifications. There’s also no word just yet on availability or pricing.