Oppo Patents Foldable Smartphone With Telescopic Camera
Amidst the ongoing trend of foldable smartphones, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo is reportedly working on a smartphone which folds outwards. The company previously showcased a prototype of such a device in the month of February. It resembled the Huawei Mate X in terms of the design factor, considering that both the devices sport a sidebar when they are folded outwards. However, since the company president wanted to get rid of the sidebar, the images present in the patent are aimed towards a bezel-less future.
About The Patent: Design And Features
The patent for the foldable Oppo smartphone was originally filed in the year 2018. Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications filed a design patent with the Global Design Database of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office). Almost a year later on 7 June 2019, the patent was published and includes a total of 42 colour renders alongside 51 sketches pertaining to the foldable device.
The description present in the patent states that the camera setup present in the Oppo device is a telescopic camera. This may not directly mean that the smartphone has a telescopic zoom-enabled camera, but rather it refers to a telescopic mechanism employed in the pop-up camera setup alongside the telescopic camera itself. Since the device is foldable, it spreads out in a tablet like form factor. Upon folding the device, the display is on the outside, and the user can make use of the pop-up camera to capture images even when the device is folded. The dual-camera module is convex in shape and boasts of modern yet elegant design.
Right next to the pop-up camera, the device has space for a power button. The earpiece can be spotted below the camera module. It is expected to sport multiple microphones, with one microphone clearly visible on the top right section of the Oppo device. Another microphone can be seen at the bottom of the handset. In addition to a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack is also present at the bottom.
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Companies are gearing up to launch their own variants of foldable smartphones in the market, but after the Galaxy Fold suffered a setback in the hands of reviewers, organizations are wary. Nonetheless, Oppo’s efforts in the segment may prove to be quite worthwhile if it can unveil its own foldable device in the near future. Competitors in the future may include Motorola and Huawei.
