In those times of exciting folding and
dual screen smartphones we could have overlooked the fact that there's another
race for innovation going on – to create an all-screen smartphone. Chinese
giant Xiaomi has been working hard to get rid of notches and punch hole cameras
for that exact reason. Over a month ago, we saw that it had patented a
wild-looking rotating phone camera design, where a module which holds all the
cameras is placed on the back of the device and can rotate all over, as to
cover selfies and other photography.
More recently, Xiaomi gave us a peek of an
actual existing smartphone with a hidden under-display camera, not just a
patent. The video demonstrates a phone that doesn't have a visible selfie
camera anywhere on the display, yet, of course, the phone is capable of taking
selfies. Where once was a punch hole camera interrupting the display, that
selfie camera is now hidden under it. And while we wait for that smartphone to
become a consumer product, we can take a look at another interesting patent
from Xiaomi, thanks to tips from TigerMobiles and LetsGoDigital.
This new patent, published today, shows 16
renders of an all-screen smartphone with not a single but dual sharp-looking
pop-up camera modules. The angled modules appear to hold two cameras each, one
facing forwards, for selfies, and the other backwards. How Xiaomi would have
managed to fit two cameras into such a cramped space is anyone's guess, unless
this smartphone actually gets made. There's also a flash on the back of the
phone, centered right under the pop-up modules.
The rest of the phone is fairly standard –
a flat display with minimal bezels, USB Type-C port on the bottom, and
surrounding it are likely microphone and speaker grills. The phone's power and
volume keys are on its right side, and on the top, next to the pop-up camera
modules, we can see either a sim card tray or an IR blaster, which are common
on Xiaomi phones.
As wild as this patent is, realistically
we can expect that Xiaomi will go with the hidden under-display selfie camera
instead, as it results in the cleanest look. No motorized moving parts would
also mean better durability.