Xiaomi is reportedly developing a buttonless smartphone that could be released as early as 2025.
Smartprix teams up with leaker chunvn8888 to reveal the first details about a buttonless Xiaomi smartphone. It is currently known under the codename Zhuque.
And as said in the preamble, its particularity would be to not have any buttons on its chassis. Would all the functions go only through the touch screen? Well, not really.
When we say buttonless, we are talking about mechanical elements. Nothing prevents Xiaomi from transferring commands to touch zones or using a pressure system, as we could have on the Google Pixel 3 and 4 in France.
A camera under the screen
In its aim of purifying the design, the Zhuque would also include a selfie camera under the screen, like Samsung on its Galaxy Z Fold 6. Note that this feat is not achieved without some concessions on the quality of the rendering.
A high-end smartphone, this model would be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 4 SoC, which should be detailed during the fall. As for the Xiaomi Zhuque, it could be launched during the first half of 2025, SmartPrix suggests.
Buttonless smartphone, an old story
The buttonless smartphone has been a tech classic for years, a sort of goal that the biggest players aren’t officially chasing. Apple is the latest with the iPhone 15 Pro, but the company has reportedly abandoned the idea because of “unresolved technical issues», dixit Ming-Chi Kuo.
Others are also trying it, like the Manta 7X which was released without a physical button in 2015 or Meizu, which managed to market the Zero in 2019. This smartphone was marketed as the world’s first hole-free smartphone:
- no more buttons, but touch zones,
- no more USB-C, but only wireless charging (+ data transfer),
- no more speaker holes, but mSound 2.0 technology that makes the screen vibrate,
- no more SIM drawer and only eSIM.
He did not have any imitators.
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