With stiff competition among smartphone manufactures, everyone wants to be at a step ahead in terms of innovation, portability and usability. The new slide-out camera technology is now slowly getting embraced by top notch mobile phone companies.

Vivo's NEX S was the first Android smartphone with a sliding motorized front-facing camera. The sliding camera is indeed the next big thing in the market, considering that an all-screen display without any notch has been in focus for long. Inthis smartphone, the camera pops out from the bodywhen you need and retracts when not in use.

However, the idea behind this slider camera tech this time is not coming from either Apple or Samsung, rather Chinese brands. While NEX S is only offering the motorized technology for the selfie camera and not the rear camera, we can at least hope something new in their next product releases.

Other than Vivo Nex, the Oppo Find X offers sliding mechanism by hiding all its useful features and utilizing much of its real-estate with full-screen display without any notch. That also allows both the front and real camera to hide inside the body when not in use. In a sense, it’s better in fall protection and durability.

Now, Honor is all set to launch its Magic 2 smartphone with slide-out cameras and full-view display. Honor Magic 2 is the successor of Magic phone that was launched back in 2016. The Honor as revealed so far that it’s taking the motor out of the smartphone and going with the sliding technology; this way it’s even more efficient.

We are also expecting another such phone with Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. The Chinese company is soon bringing out its bezel-less device sometime in October. It is actually Mi Mix 2S which started the trend with smartphones free of bezels. This, however, will be refined and slick, in its attempt to offer immersive full display design.

So, with these phones – we are sure, more will come –at least we see there is an attempt to kill the notch, as companies try to offer bezel-free phones with slide-out cameras.

Even though sliding mechanisms has not been a trend so far, any user-friendly technology is a welcome idea. We can only tell their feasibilityand preference, once end users start using those frequently. These are certainly in their nascent stage, but we can still give our thumbs up, while waiting for others to come up with more refined approach and design.

--Deepak Mohanty