5 smartphones with slide-out cameras

The slide-out design is not new in the world of mobile phones and was implemented years ago to hide the physical keyboard. That design is slowly coming back in a sort of renaissance, this time to hide the cameras in an effort to make the device look more seamless. Here are some of them.

Vivo NEX S

Vivo was one of the first brands to introduce the slide-out design in a smartphone this year. In June, they officially released the NEX and the NEX S after unveiling the APEX concept phone at MWC 2018. It sports a 6.59-inch display with a 91.24% screen-to-body ratio, dual-rear cameras, and an in-display fingerprint scanner. Powering it is a Snapdragon 845 chipset, up to 8GB of RAM, and 4,000mAh battery. Its standout feature though is the slide-out front-facing camera at the top.

OPPO Find X

Shortly after the unveiling of the Vivo NEX, OPPO introduced the Find X. Unlike the NEX that only hides the front camera, the Find X’s stealth camera hides the front and rear cameras in a single slide-out module. It doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner and instead uses an infrared camera (also installed in the slide-out module) to recognize the user’s face and unlocks the phone. Other features include the 6.4-inch screen, a 93.8% screen-to-body ratio, Snapdragon 845 chipset, up to 8GB of RAM, and 3,730mAh battery.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

Next is the Mi Mix 3 which was unveiled late last month. It has a magnetic slider that shows the 24MP + 2MP dual front cameras. It has a 6.39-inch screen but with a 93.4% screen-to-body ratio which is a 3.83% increase from the Mi Mix 2s, a Snapdragon 845, up to 10GB of RAM, dual 12MP rear cameras, and a 3,200mAh battery with support for 10W Qi Wireless Charging.

Honor Magic 2

Barely a week after the announcement of the Mi Mix 3, Honor has announced the Magic 2. It has a sliding mechanism like the Mi Mix 3 that hides three front cameras: 16MP + 2x 2MP depth sensors. It also has three cameras at the rear, sports a 6.39-inch screen, a 91.5% screen-to-body ratio, Kirin 980 chipset, up to 8GB of RAM, in-display fingerprint scanner, and 3,500mAh battery.

Lenovo Z5 Pro

Last, but definitely, not the least, is the Lenovo Z5 Pro. However, unlike the rest of the devices in the list, this one isn’t a flagship-grade device and sports a Snapdragon 710 chipset. The rest of its features, though, are very much premium — 6.39-inch screen, 95.06% screen-to-body ratio, dual rear cameras, 6GB of RAM, and in-display fingerprint scanner. As for its slide-out module, it houses the dual front cameras with IR face recognition.

And there you have it. We only have a few of these smartphones as of writing but we’re sure that we’ll see more of them in 2019.

Which slide-out phone is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.