~ MamakTalk ~: Huawei Patents Foldable Phone Design That Hides Camera Bump

2021年7月3日星期六

Huawei Patents Foldable Phone Design That Hides Camera Bump

The foldalbe phone market is here to stay, as companies like Samsung and Huawei are still pushing the limits of what a foldable phone can do. New patent images spotted by 91Mobiles shows that there’s a new Huawei foldable phone in the works, and it will have a special way of hiding the camera bump.

The new Huawei foldable will have a cutout that will house the camera bump

The patent was submitted to the World intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the images show us a pretty typical foldable device. This new Huawei foldable, however, will be an outward folding phone, like the Huawei Mate X first generation.

What’s intersting about this design is that there’s a specific cutout on the side of the phone opposite the camera bump. When closed, the camera bump will fit snuggly into the cutout. This will lead to an overall thinner profile when the device is closed.

The patent images show some possible orientations for the camera package. One shows a stove-top design, while one hows the cameras in a straight line. This shows that Huawei is still weighing is options.

This phone may not even happen

It’s important to note that these images are from a patent application. This means that Huawei hasn’t gotten it just yet. It could take months for an application to be, and there’s no promise that it will be accepted.

It’s also tough to know when this patent was actually submitted. It has the old Mate X outward folding design. Huawei went all in with the inward folding method that’s present on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series. It seems odd that Huawei would be going back to that design.

This could just be Huawei securing the patent so that other companies wouldn’t be able to use it. The company might not have any actual intention of manufacturing this phone at all.

Harmony OS is still making it to other Huawei devices

While Huawei is working on patent applications for its future devices, it’s also working on pushing Harmony OS to its current devices. Not too long ago, the company stated that it planned on updating over 100 devices to Harmony OS. It has been banned from making any sort of business with the US, while Xiaomi and Honor can.

Being banned from the US means that Huawei can not use Google’s Android platform. This is why the company had to quickly throw together its own operating system. This is software that can be run on phones, tablets, computers, and smartwatches. If this new Huawei foldable does actually launch, we can expect it to be running the latest version of Harmony OS.