Doogee, known for its “manly” phones, has made a bezel-less and notch-less 5.99-inch phone with a neat sliding mechanism that hides the front-facing camera. Unfortunately, it also hides the light sensor and speaker. The concept device was revealed for the first time in an unboxing video posted by Arun Maini, also known as YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss.
Doogee’s design is clever because it deftly solves the problem of needing a fat bezel or notch cut into the display in order to host the camera and sensors packed into the top of modern phones. It’s reminiscent of The HTC 7 Surround, which used a slider to hide the device’s forward-facing “boombox” speaker and rear kickstand. There is a tiny bezel that surrounds the screen, but the Mix 4 still has an impressive screen-to-body ratio of approximately 97 percent. Maini says the screen size is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S9. A fingerprint icon can be seen on the phone’s screen, which suggests that the upcoming production device will ship with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
The meta Mix 4 makes a satisfying click when it slides into place and its dual-layer design makes it a bit thick (compared to other phones) at 11mm. The phone’s specs are scant apart from the visible dual rear cameras, though the company did tell Maini it plans to use a Snapdragon processor.
Doogee isn’t the only company going back to sliding phones. Earlier this year, HMD unveiled a refreshed version of the Nokia-branded 8110 Matrix banana phone with a slider that reveals the phone’s keypad.
There’s no word yet on when the Mix 4 will go on sale. Maini notes, however, that given Doogee’s historical release schedule, it’s likely the Mix 4 will be available in December, six months after the Mix 3 in June.