Lately, OPPO has been filing patents for a wide variety of smartphone designs. It even showcased the world’s first rollable concept smartphone last month in the form of OPPO X 2021. Now, a new design patent by the company imagines a smartphone with a detachable camera module.
This patent was filed by Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). We are not sure who found it first but 91Mobiles did not mention the filing and publication times of this patent.
Talking about the design, the phone used in the sketches seem to be generic with no notch or punch-hole on the front. Perhaps, it may have an under-display camera. But then again, there are no physical buttons or ports as well. Hence, we believe that it is indeed for illustration only.
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Anyway, the main aspect of this patent is the detachable camera module located at the back. This module houses a dual-camera setup along with an LED flash and it connects with the phone via USB Type-C.
The connector port on this module can be adjusted up to 90° and therefore, the rear camera setup can also be used for selfies and video calls. In other words, it is similar to ASUS Zenfone 6 and Zenfone 7/7Pro but the camera module can be detached as well as replaced with a different supported module with another set of cameras.
Having said that, we don’t expect OPPO to release a commercial smartphone with this design. Because many others have tried modularity on mobile phones and have failed terribly.
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