Portless phones may be the trend in 2019 that you can only see, but not touch. vivo’s concept, the APEX 2019, was only seen at MWC 2019. Meanwhile, Meizu has at least taken a step forward in making its Zero phone available to backers of its crowdfunding campaign. It recently closed without achieving its funding goal.

We figured that the niche appeal of bleeding-edge design would be too impractical for a mass audience anyways, but there’s been a wiggling bit of suspicion about whether these companies would be boisterous enough to go forward with volume production.

For Meizu’s part at least, CEO Jack Wong has confirmed to its BBS forums community that the Zero was not much more than a publicity stunt.

“The crowdfunding project is being carried out by the marketing department,” Wong wrote. “The non-porous mobile phone is only a pre-release research project of the development department. We never intended to mass-produce this project.”

Many fans followed up by asking where the long-rumored Meizu 16s was. Fair question: the device would be the latest in its value flagship lineup that people can afford.