TCL has patented a new smartphone design, and this one includes an under-display camera. This patent surfaced on CNIPA today, though it was submitted in December last year.
As you can see in the provided sketch, this phone looks fairly interesting. At first glance, it may seem like it has somewhat thicker bezels than it should, but its display is curved, so take that into account.
The image from the front doesn’t really give you the best idea what to expect, as the curvature is not incorporated here. When those sides get curved, the bezels will look much thinner.
TCL patented a smartphone design with under-display camera, and curved display
The device will include a curved display, as the sketch from the left and right sides clearly show. The top and bottom bezels will be fairly thin as well. A selfie camera is not visible as it’s located under the display.
The phone’s back side is also curved towards the edges. Now, things get rather interesting on the back of this phone, according to the provided sketch.
It may seem like this phone has six cameras on the back, but it doesn’t. It has four cameras, and two LED flashlights. That is quite odd, but there you go, TCL opted to go with twice the light here.
That suggests that the company is planning something new with this camera setup, probably. A Type-C USB port is placed on the bottom of this phone, and that’s where the SIM card tray is as well. The same goes for the phone’s main speaker.
This is just a patent at this point. Just because TCL patented this design doesn’t mean the phone will actually launch. It may, but don’t hold your breath.
As far as smartphones with under-display cameras are concerned, we may have to wait until 2021 to see them. That is, at least, what most reports are saying at this point.
OPPO’s and Meizu’s executives said that the technology is still not ready to go. OPPO and Xiaomi did demo smartphones with under-display camera tech last year, though.
Visionox is ready to mass-produce its under-display camera tech
What’s interesting is the fact that Visionox already announced its under-display camera tech, and said it is ready to mass-produce it. Visionox, for those of you who don’t know, is a display manufacturer.
One rumor even claims that Huawei may get exclusive access to Visionox’s under-display camera technology / displays. That is rumored to happen in 2020, so Huawei may be the first smartphone OEM to release a phone with an under-display selfie camera. We’ll see if that will happen or not.