Vivo ditched traditional bezel-hogging features such as an embedded front camera and home button to deliver a sleek, all-screen experience in its newest flagship smartphone, the Nex.

In a statement, Vivo SVP Alex Feng said the debut of the Nex “brings an end to the industry’s pursuit of a true bezel-less device”.

The device achieves a screen-to-body ratio of 91.24 per cent by shifting its 8MP selfie camera from its historical spot in a bezel or notch at the top of the screen to a new position where it automatically pops up out of the top of the device. Vivo highlighted the durability of the new retractable camera, noting on its website it can “withstand strong tension and torsion”, and lifted 50,000 times without failure during tests.

Vivo also eliminated the standard earpiece speaker, replacing it with new screen soundcasting technology, which uses vibrations to turn the entire display into a speaker. Underneath the 6.59-inch screen is an in-display fingerprint sensor, which Vivo billed as 50 per cent better at recognition and 10 per cent faster than previous iterations of the technology.

The vendor also packed in a slew of high-end specifications, including a Snapdragon 845 processor running Vivo’s Funtouch OS 4.0 (based on Android 8.1), 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though it will also offer a cheaper version with a Snapdragon 710 processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

In addition to the selfie camera, both versions of the device also come with dual 12MP and 5MP rear cameras, as well as a 4000mAh battery and upgrades to Vivo’s Jovi artificial intelligence assistant to enable voice commands.

However, Vivo said availability of the device will be limited to China, where it will be priced at CNY4,998 ($781) for the top-tier model and CNY4,498 for the 128GB version.