~ MamakTalk ~: New Samsung Patent Shows Foldable Phone With Rotating Camera

2021年6月19日星期六

New Samsung Patent Shows Foldable Phone With Rotating Camera

We can sometimes tell a lot about what a company is working on by the patents that it files. Samsung is a prime example of this. A new patent filed by the company shows us a foldable phone with a rotating camera. This was spotted on WIPO.

The camera rests on the side in a cylindrical module

It looks like the foldable phone is still gaining its identity, as different foldable phone form factors are working their way into the market. We have inward folding phones, outward folding phones, clamshell folding phones, and whatever the heck the TCL ‘Fold and Roll’ was. Companies are still finding ways of improving on the flaws that haunt the foldable phone market.

It looks like Samsung’s addition to the folding smartphone market is a rotating camera. The patent images show us a folding phone with a rotating camera on board. The camera will rest inside a small rotating cylinder on the side. The form factor of this phone is identical to the company’s Galaxy Fold series.

This means that the camera package will be the same for the device whether it’s open or closed. This is something that’s not exactly new. Other OEMs have plopped their cameras onto rotating and flipping modules. This is so the user can use the more capable main camera for selfies and Vlogging.

The good and bad sides of a foldable phone with a rotating camera

Since the camera will be able to rotate a fair amount, there’s the possibility of having it rotate to a custom angle. In one of the patent images, we see what looks like a person operating the camera manually. On the bottom half of the phone, right next to the shutter button, we see an arrow on the screen. The person is swiping down, picking the angle that she wants the camera to go to. This is neat, not only for the sake of convenience but for cinematic effects and tricks.

Another good side to this camera mentality is the fact that it doesn’t cut into the screen all that much. The first generation Galaxy Z Fold had a large notch that ate up a fair amount of the inner display. In the patent images, we see that the screen is mostly complete.

The downside to having a folding phone with a rotating camera is the fact that there are now more moving parts that can get damaged. Foldable phones are better than they were back in 2019, but they are far from being durable. It being a foldable device already knocks a few points off of its durability. Having a rotating camera might not be for people who don’t baby their phones.

There’s no telling if this phone will ever see the light of day. At the end of the day, patents are only patents. It’ll still be interesting to see this phone in the future, nevertheless.