Vivo pulls back curtain on new 5G handset

Chinese smartphone vendor Vivo unveiled its premium 5G smartphone NEX 3 5G on Monday night.

The move came less than one month after Vivo's first 5G handset iQOO Pro was unveiled, making it one of the most aggressive players in establishing a beachhead for commercializing the superfast technology.

Vivo said it took two years for the company to design and make the 5G smartphone. NEX 3 5G is built for 5G and is the result of years of research and development, the company added. Vivo has applied for more than 2,000 5G patents so far.

Hong Yi, product manager of NEX at Vivo, said the company has adopted cutting-edge solutions to solve problems blocking the popularity of 5G smartphones, including the difficulty of obtaining strong 5G signals, overheating and short battery life.

According to Hong, the company has invested 200 million yuan ($28.3 million) in developing the model.

Priced from 5,698 yuan ($806), NEX 3 5G features a 6.89-inch display offering a screen resolution of 2256 x 1080 pixels and offers 99.6 percent screen-to-body ratio, better than its rival products.

The company has already started research into 6G by cooperating with premier universities in China.

On the backside, NEX 3 5G features a triple-camera setup which includes a 64-megapixel primary sensor coupled with two other camera sensors, both having 13-megapixel resolution. On the front side, it comes with a 16-megapixel snapper for taking selfies and shooting videos.

It also comes with a Vivo Computation Acceleration Platform, which can function as an AI-enabled telephone assistant to help users answer calls from strangers.