A Design Patient Filing Reveals Xiaomi Hole-Punch Camera Phone Could Be In Works

It appears that Chinese phone maker Xiaomi is preparing for a hole-punch camera phone. It received a design patent filing in last August but was just added to WIPO’s database recently. As per the filing, the mysterious phone will have 3 different variants. Interestingly, the phone’s rear panel has the same look with the POCO F1’s, and the Redmi K20 lineup’s. The front panel sports a hole-punch camera put at the upper right, left or center.

One of the above-mentioned variants sports a hole-punch camera put on the upper left corner. Meanwhile, the other variants have the camera at the upper right and upper center corner. The one with center-aligned hole-punch camera design has a smaller cut-out than those of two remaining variants. As the patent was registered in last August, it is likely that these above designs are used on the Redmi K20 smartphones. And we are not sure if Xiaomi tested a different approach before developing pop-up selfie camera mechanism on its K20 and K20 Pro.

This design cannot belong to the POCO F2 phone, a device which is tipped to be discontinued. The rear design showcased in the design patent sketches suggests a quite similar design, but additional hardware. Additionally, there is a fingerprint sensor and a center-aligned camera module. The K20 lineup sports an on-screen fingerprint sensor, so this appears to be another device. The phone’s rear panel has triple cameras with 2 sensors housed in an oval-shaped cut-out and a fingerprint sensor below it.

There is also an additional camera sensor put on the top of the cut-out and 2 LED flash/AF sensor on the two sides. Also, the design reveals an audio jack put at the top, which is identical to the POCO F1. This is probably the POCO F2 and its launch is expected to take place soon. We should stay tuned for more information later.