LG did not have that much luck when it comes to smartphones in the last couple of years. After a number of rather successful years and models, like the LG G2 and G3, the company simply cannot find the right formula for success.
LG’s smartphones have been selling less and less, and the company is trying to turn things around. LG patented a device with no physical buttons a couple of months ago, but that patent is only now making the rounds online.
The patent was submitted back in October last year with the KIPO (Korean Intellectual Property Office). That patent got published on April 19 this year. This patent actually comes with seven sketched which show a phone with a quadruple-camera on the back.
If this phone ends up launching in the near future, it could become the company’s first handset with four cameras. Not a single LG-branded phone has four cameras on the back at the moment. The company’s flagship offerings, the LG G8 Thinq, and V50 ThinQ, have three cameras on the back.
In the case of the device LG patented, those four cameras are placed around an LED flash. A fingerprint scanner is not visible on the device, so it’s probably located under the display. A loudspeaker and a Type-C port are located on the bottom of the device, while a 3.5mm port is also placed down there.
The phone’s frame is made out of aluminum, and interestingly enough, no physical buttons are located on either side of the phone. If this phone becomes a reality, it will follow in the Meizu Zero’s footsteps. The Meizu Zero was introduced earlier this year as the world’s first smartphone which has no physical buttons.
One of Vivo’s concept phones also has no physical buttons, while the Galaxy Note 10 was rumored to include them as well. The Galaxy Note 10 rumors turned out to be false, though, as the phone does include physical keys.
The device that LG patented also has very thin bezels. The phone includes a tiny dewdrop notch at the top of the display, while its bezels are extremely thin. In fact, it seems like all of its bezels are of the same thickness. So, you will not get a “chin” below the display, or anything of the sort. This phone seems to have a flat display on the front, and it seems like its sides will not be as curved as you may think. Those sides are way curvier on phones nowadays.
In addition to that handset, LG had another design patent registered over at KIPO. This handset does resemble the previous one, but it has physical buttons. It has volume up and down buttons on the left, while a power / lock key is included on the right. In addition to that, it seems to have a physical camera shutter on the right as well.
That handset also has one camera on the back with a large ring around it. This is rather odd, and the patent does not really share any info regarding this camera. Your guess is as good as ours. We do hope that LG will share more information about these two smartphones in the near future.
