Oppo New Patents Show Another Way To Workaround The Punch-Hole Camera

Samsung first brought the punched-hole design for its front camera to the Galaxy A8s. With this design, to open the camera app, users need to swipe down from the hole. The upcoming Galaxy S10 line from Samsung is expected to feature the same thing. On the other hand, Oppo has filed a pair of patent applications to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that hints another way to take advantage of the punch-hole design.

Filed under the title “Mobile phone with app icon interface,” Oppo’s patent application has diagrams illustrating a handset device that includes a punch-hole front camera positioned at the top left corner of the phone screen. A filing shows that the punch-hole camera is overlaid by a camera icon, users open the camera app by tapping on the icon. To turn off the app, users need to tap on the icon and swipe it to the right.

Oppo’s second filing indicates five app icons lying at the screen’s top, with a camera app icon overlaying the punch-hole again. Swiping on the icons will show other apps, but the camera icon is always on the same spot. Users can click on the camera icon to open the app, the same gesture works for other apps.

It is expected that Oppo will introduce its first smartphones to feature a punch-hole front camera at MWC 2019 held in Barcelona next month. These upcoming devices are believed to be the Oppo F19 as well as the Oppo F19 Pro. It is also likely that the phones will both feature Oppo 10x optical zoom technology, along with an in-screen fingerprint reader which allows access anywhere across the phone’s screen.

Previous news revealed that the Oppo F19 and F19 Pro will come with a dual camera setup on the back, including wide-angle and telephoto lenses.