With Huawei’s smartphone market share dropping, Xiaomi and OPPO came out as the beneficiaries in the third quarter of 2020 in Western Europe, as per IDC. The former has had a presence in these regions for a while now. But the latter has now begun to take advantage of Huawei’s situation. In order to excel, OPPO has also been filing various patents in the past few months. One such new smartphone design patent with a 15x zoom camera has emerged.

Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications filed this new smartphone design patent in July 2020. It got approved and published last month on November 6. As usual, LetsGoDigital was the first to find it and the publication even teamed up with Concept Creator (Jermaine Smit) for 3D renders.

According to the patent documents, this OPPO smartphone design includes a curved display on the front with a centered punch-hole. In case you do not know, for some unknown reason, only Samsung has released OLED smartphones with centered punch-hole so far. 

EDITOR’S PICK: OPPO patents Unique Foldable Smartphone designs with a weird Block structure

But recently, Fujitsu Arrows NX9 F-52A became the first non-Samsung with such a display. However, this device will be limited to Japan and will only go on sale in late January. Hence, we think that this exclusivity has now ended and we may see more consumer-ready handsets as well as design patents with centered punch-hole OLED display in the future.

Coming back to the patent, the back of the handset houses a horizontally aligned triple camera setup. The original sketches do not have any text, but the 3D renders by Jermaine include ‘15X ZOOM’ lettering below the LED flash since this phone supports up to 15x hybrid zoom, as per documents.

If this sounds similar, then you aren’t alone. That’s because OPPO filed a similar smartphone design patent but with a circular pop-up camera module instead of a punch-hole. In other words, the placement of the selfie camera is the only major difference between these two designs.

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Last but not least, the handset has a power key on the right side, volume buttons on the left side,  and a USB Type-C port at the bottom along with a speaker grille and a primary microphone. Concept Creator has included a 3.5mm headphone jack for fun, but do note that the original sketches do not have it.

Having said, unlike the design patent with a circular pop-up camera module, this one can be easily implemented without much complexity. Hence, OPPO can bring this design to the market if the company wants to.

UP NEXT: Oppo X 2021 unveiled as the world’s first smartphone concept with an extending display

The post OPPO patents a smartphone design with 15x hybrid zoom camera appeared first on Gizmochina.

Update – November 16

In the original story, we were skeptical regarding the presence of a periscope camera. Because the design sketches showed all the rear camera sensors in a circular shape.

But now, we can confirm the third sensor on the right side to feature a periscope lens. All thanks to the folks at LetsGoDigital who were kind enough to clarify the patent document to us.

Original Story – November 16

OPPO is gearing up for tomorrow’s OPPO INNO DAY 2020 conference. Ahead of it, a smartphone design patent by the company has emerged. This design includes a circular pop-up selfie camera module and a 15x hybrid zoom camera module.

Recently, LetsGoDigital, a publication known for patent and trademark-related coverage has been posting stories on OPPO, probably in partnership with the company ahead of its biggest conferences of the year. 

Late last week, the publication posted a story on OPPO smartphone design with an extendable display. Now, today, the company itself confirmed that it will be showcasing a similar device at the event tomorrow.

A few hours later, LetsGoDigital has published another OPPO smartphone design patent story. Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications filed this patent in April but it got approved and published on November 12.

EDITOR’S PICK: OPPO patents Unique Foldable Smartphone designs with a weird Block structure

As mentioned in the beginning, this design features a single circular pop-up selfie camera module. That’s not all, it also houses a triple camera setup on the back with 15x hybrid zoom capability. 

But interestingly, none of the three cameras seems to feature a periscope lens as all of them are circular in shape. However, the renders created by Concept Creator shows a square-shaped module. Additionally, the design also features a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is no longer found in modern premium smartphones.

Further, unlike any other OPPO phone, the camera setup in this design is placed horizontally on the rear panel like on the Galaxy S10 series and Meizu 17 series. 

Anyway, we are not sure if the company will ever launch a commercial smartphone with this design. But the company may use the 15x hybrid camera system in a future device. In fact, it may even showcase it at tomorrow’s event.

UP NEXT: OPPO patents a smartphone design akin to OnePlus 7T but with under-display camera

The post OPPO patents a smartphone design with circular pop-up camera module and 15x hybrid zoom appeared first on Gizmochina.