Smartphone manufacturers have been trying to introduce devices with under-display camera sensors for years and now the technology finally seems ready to be used on a commercial smartphone.

ZTE has confirmed that the company will launch its Axon 20 5G smartphone on 1st September, making it the world’s first smartphone to feature an in-display camera sensor. Other companies like OPPO and Xiaomi are also working on similar technology.

Along with them, TCL is also working on the same, as revealed through a patent application a couple of months ago. However, it seems that the company is quite ambitious in this regard and isn’t stopping at an in-display camera but wants to hide all the camera sensors.

A new smartphone design patent filed by TCL has been surfaced online without any visible camera sensors on the device — neither on the front side nor on the back. The patent, first reported by LetsGoDigital, also includes product sketches, giving us an idea about the phone.

The images show a smartphone with relatively thicker bezels around the display. There’s definitely an in-display camera sensor at least for the front-facing camera. But interestingly, no camera module is visible on the backside.

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The top part on the backside is significantly bigger than the rest of the area and it may have something to do with the camera module but nothing has been revealed in this patent. There’s another theory as well.

For the invisible camera module on the backside, the company could be using technology we saw on the OnePlus Concept One smartphone. The back could have a glass panel which becomes transparent when cameras are in use and becomes opaque when not in use.

Do note that this is just a patent so there’s no certainty that the company plans to launch a device with such design and technology. The company is more likely to launch its in-display camera smartphone first before unveiling a device with all camera sensors hidden.

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