Chinese company promised a holeless phone, later calls it a ‘marketing stunt’

Meizu Zero was launched as the world’s first holeless smartphone. The smartphone’s crowdfunding campaign however failed with only 29 backers.

Meizu Zero holeless smartphone. (Meizu)

With every smartphone launch these days there's something first. Meizu's first was the 'world's first holeless smartphone'. Meizu Zero comes with no holes or ports, but the smartphone turned out to be a marketing gimmick, the company said.

Meizu Zero was launched earlier this January, and crowdfunded the product on Indiegogo. The crowdfunding project however failed to take off as it gathered only 29 backers. Meizu Zero will definitely not be available now and may not be commercially available in the future.

First spotted by Engagdet, Meizu CEO Jack Wong said on the company's official forum, "This crowdfunding project was just the marketing team messing about. The holeless phone is just a development project from the R&D department, we never intended to mass-produce this project."

Meizu Zero 'holeless' features

Meizu ambitiously launched the smartphone calling it the "world's first seamless, uninterrupted phone". Meizu Zero doesn't have a speaker grille, headphone jack, SIM tray or USB port. Meizu Zero uses mSound 2.0 on its display for audio output doubling as a speaker and earpiece.

The smartphone also features 'Pressure Sensing Technology' for powering the phone on and off, and adjusting the volume. These virtual buttons give haptic feedback on applying pressure. Replacing the physical SIM tray is eSIM functionality which is a virtual SIM already installed in the device.

Meizu Zero specifications

Meizu Zero features a full HD 5.99-inch Super AMOLED display with 2.5D curved glass on top. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm's older Snapdragon 845 processor. In the photography department, Meizu Zero sports dual 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel rear cameras. Up front, the smartphone houses a 20-megapixel selfie-camera.