In April this year, a special smartphone model from Xiaomi was in talks, in which a dual camera was placed on top of the device, as a sort of reverse notch. Not much later, Vivo and Huawei also patented a similar phone design. Now Samsung also appears to have such a design in development. What kind of devices are these and when can you expect these types of models?
Samsung phone with a reverse notch
On October 7, 2019, the KIPO (Korean Intellectual Property Office) published a design patent from Samsung Display. The patent was applied for a year earlier and was approved in September 2019. Since it is a design patent, the description is brief.
Patent description: The present design is a display module with a display panel attached to the back of the cover window used in a smartphone. The cover window includes a protruding portion at the top center. By placing the cameras, speakers, etc. in there, the screen size can be maximized while creating a rectangle screen.
In other words, the cameras, speakers, and sensors are processed in the protruding part. In this way, a large screen can be created, without indentations. The reverse notch is centered on the patented Samsung phone. The wide recess offers space for at least one front camera, a speaker and two sensors.
Although smartphones have been released with a double notch, such as the Sharp Aquos R3, no phones with a reverse notch have been presented yet. In recent years, however, numerous alternatives have been devised for the notch at the top of the screen. Think of a pop-up camera, rotating camera, a punch hole camera, and even a dual-display phone. All alternatives to create a place for the selfie camera and additional sensors.
In the meantime, several manufacturers have indicated that they have a smartphone in development with an under-screen camera. This solution will put a definitive end to the era of the controversial notch. However, it will take quite some time before this technology is sufficiently developed to actually be used in an end product. Moreover, it is obvious that this advanced technology will be the first to be found in advanced smartphone models.
The question is what the budget and mid-range phones will look like by then. Will the reverse notch make its appearance there? It remains to be seen, for the time being, at least it is remarkable that so many mobile manufacturers have patented such type of smartphone model in the past year.
