Xiaomi may be working on some rather odd-looking phones with corner selfie cameras, as the company patented several new designs. These designs were filed for with the Hague International Design System, as several images were submitted.
If you take a look at the images provided below, you will see four different designs. All those Xiaomi designs have one thing in common, two corner selfie cameras, one per corner of the phone.
The first design basically brings two small notches in the corners. Other than that, its bezels are extremely thin. That very same design also has two vertically-aligned cameras on the back, with an LED flash right below them.
The second design takes a slightly different approach. Instead of cutting into the display with notches, it simply offers more rounded display corners. That goes for both its top and bottom corners, just to make the phone proportional.
This design could actually work well, as bezels are almost non-existent, only the phone’s corners are a bit more pronounced. It would be interesting to see this phone’s design in a non-sketch format. That very same design includes two vertically-aligned cameras in the top-left corner of the phone’s back side. An LED flash sits on their right side.
The third design is arguably the oddest one. In this design, the two cameras basically protrude out of the top of the phone. They look like small ears on the sides, like the phone is a cat or something of the sort.
This design probably wouldn’t appeal to many people, but it may to some. Some people use those large cases for phones with ears, tails, and what not, so such a design may appeal to them, who knows. This phone has two horizontally-aligned cameras on the back, and they are placed in the top-left corner of the phone’s back.
The last design that Xiaomi submitted reminds us of the Pixel 4 phones, at least from the front. This design does not contain a display notch, or anything of the sort, but its “forehead” is a bit thicker than its “chin”.
On the back, you’ll notice two vertically-aligned cameras, with an LED flash in-between them. A rear-facing fingerprint scanner is also included here. This rear camera setup (its design) is quite familiar, as Apple has been using it for years now, and the same goes for Xiaomi.
Those are basically all the designs that Xiaomi applied for. They surfaced on October 11, even though Xiaomi applied for them quite some time ago, it seems.
This is not the first time we’re seeing designs like this from Xiaomi, though. Back in April, the company applied for smartphone designs with corner camera setups as well. Those designs have surfaced at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office).
The fact that Xiaomi submitted these designs doesn’t really have to mean anything. We may see a phone with one of these designs become a reality, but that doesn’t have to be the case. All we can do at this point is wait.