Smartphone manufacturers are currently in the race
of offering a device with the highest screen-to-body ratio. Apart from
minimizing the bezels, companies are now coming up with solutions like notched
display and pop-up mechanism for housing the camera. Now, a parent of Xiaomi’s
smartphone has been published online, which shows that the company will house
the dual front-facing camera sensors inside a notch that’s placed at the bottom
of the display.
This is not the first time Xiaomi is experimenting
with the placement of the front-facing camera sensor. The Xiaomi Mi MIX
smartphone, which was claimed to be a bezel-less phone, also housed the selfie
camera at the bottom. However, it was not placed inside a notch, which is the
case with this patent.
With such design changes, one question that arises
is the usage of the phone. Having camera sensors at the bottom changes the
composition of the selfies or video calling and the users will have to hold the
device a bit higher than usual for it to look more natural.
Another patent shows two front-facing cameras at the
bottom of the front panel but instead of having both sensors together in the
middle, each sensor is placed at each corner at the bottom, inside the notch.
Coming to the back panel, it remains the same in
both designs, featuring a dual rear camera setup with camera sensors stacked
vertically in the top-left corner. It’s not yet clear if the phone will be a
part of Xiaomi, Redmi, or Poco lineup.
While this unique design will make Xiaomi’s smartphone
stand out from the crowd, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see a smartphone with such
design anytime soon. Many times the patents are just for the experiment and not
all the devices that get patented makes it to the commercial stage.
