A patent filed by OPPO on CNIPA shows that the Chinese smartphone company is set to soon lift the curtains on its first-ever foldable phone. The design featured on the patent is reminiscent of a prototype from 2019, indicating that OPPO has been working on the phone for over a couple of years now.

The images (via 91mobiles) reveal a phone not too different in design from the Huawei Mate X that was unveiled back in 2019. It sports an external folding display. Because of this, its power and volume buttons are all on the right side of the device. The left side is part of the display itself.

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The patent images further reveal that the phone will have a vertical camera module. While it’s difficult to ascertain, the module looks like it can easily fit 3 lenses. The top of the device has a SIM card tray and the bottom part holds a USB Type-C charging port along with the speaker.

GSMArena had earlier reported that the OPPO foldable phone may launch as early as this month. That remains unconfirmed officially though.

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Expected specifications of the device include an 8-inch foldable display with a 120Hz refresh rate and LTPO technology. The Snapdragon 888 is expected to be powering the phone – a strange move considering that the Snapdragon 898 is set to be unveiled pretty soon.

Previous rumors talked about the OPPO foldable having a 50 MP primary rear camera with Sony’s IMX766 sensor and a 32 MP selfie shooter, as well as a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.

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