In addition to foldable smartphones, Xiaomi could also be working on a phone with flip camera design, new patent images showed.
A listing on Chinese certification site CNIPA showed Xiaomi has been granted a patent for the flip camera design. According to 91Mobiles, the patent was filed back in 2018.
It reveals the schematics of a possible future smartphone with an array of cameras at the back that would double up as the selfie shooters using a flip mechanism, similar to what we have seen on ASUS 6Z.
The images show the camera setup either in the middle or to the left of the flip camera module. With the rear camera system flipping to the front, it eliminates the need for a punch-hole cutout or notch on the display.
And a quad-camera setup, though excessive for selfies, is quickly becoming mainstream so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to bring it to reality.
Xiaomi could use this new design in a smartphone that might be launched later in the year; however, it’s not necessary that the company will introduce it as product solely because the design has been patented.
In October 2019, a listing reveals a smartphone design with dual front-facing cameras crammed up in the upper corners of the front panel.
At first, the cutout seems smaller than the current punch-hole implementations and some of the pictures even suggest that cutout isn't even necessary.
