While the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Honor View 20 have a cut-out in the screen for a camera, some manufacturers are taking a different approach to eliminating bezels and notches, and it looks like Huawei might be among them.
A Huawei patent published by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) on March 1 and spotted by LetsGoDigital shows a phone with a sliding selfie camera. By that we mean that the whole back half of the handset seemingly slides up to reveal the camera above the screen.
It’s a dual-lens camera and there’s also a dual-lens camera on the back, as you can see in the images below. The front meanwhile actually appears to have quite thick side bezels and some bezel below the screen too, but almost none at the top.
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There’s no obvious sign of a fingerprint scanner, which could mean that it’s built either into the screen or the power button – or it could simply be absent because the drawing is incomplete. After all, there’s also no branding on the image.
There’s no guarantee that this phone will actually launch, since for now it’s just a patent. But if it does then it probably won’t be a high-end one, given the large side bezels and the fact that there’s only a dual-lens camera on the back, compared to the likes of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro which has three.
But it is an indication of the direction Huawei might be looking to go with future phones in terms of what to do with the selfie camera. The company’s latest flagships have a notch and leaks suggest that the Huawei P30 will as well, but a sliding camera could be Huawei’s next step towards a truly all-screen design.
If it is, Huawei won’t be alone. We’ve already seen niche phones such as the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 launch with a sliding action, and the OnePlus 7 is rumored to have a pop-up camera too.
- Check out our hands-on Huawei Mate X review
