Fully buttonless phones aren't new, but there have not been many consumer-grade options yet. After HTC launched the U12 with no physical buttons, Vivo showcased a prototype called Apex in 2019, and it featured pressure-sensitive sensors instead of real buttons. These capacitive buttons are already present in some of the latest smartphones, like the Asus ROG Phone 8 and RedMagic 9S Pro.

However, those phones utilize pressure-sensitive sensors as shoulder triggers and don't replace the physical volume and power buttons. But the market may see a new fully physical buttonless phone soon. Per a reputed tipster chunvn8888, Xiaomi is working on a flagship smartphone with the codename Zhuque.

This Xiaomi smartphone will reportedly have no physical power or volume buttons. The leaker didn't share any information on what technology the company would use for its buttonless phone, but it could be similar to what's present on gaming smartphones such as the ROG Phone 8 Pro.

That is, Xiaomi could use pressure-sensitive sensors that are paired with linear motors to emulate physical buttons. The vibration motors would be there to offer haptic feedbackon the input being registered.

As for the other aspects of the Xiaomi buttonless phone, it's said to be a proper flagship and is expected to feature the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor. Worth noting that Qualcomm hasn't released a "Plus" variant of its flagship SoCs since the 8 Gen 1. Instead, there were overclocked variants, which eventually appeared on smartphones as the "Leading Version."

The buttonless Xiaomi smartphone is also tipped to feature an in-display selfie camera similar to the ones found in the RedMagic 9S Pro (12/256 GB curr. $749 on Amazon) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. But again, these are very early pieces of information about the phone, and if the phone is indeed in the making, these tipped specs may be altered in the later stages of development.