Patent images for Asus smartphone show pop-up camera and camera hole

The EUIPO has recently approved and published design patents from Asus that contain drawings of a number of potential solutions for a smartphone’s selfie camera. Some of the more intriguing images show three smartphones from a diagonal viewpoint demonstrating how a pop-up camera could be integrated. Three further drawings focus on the possible size of the pop-up camera: small size in the center, medium size occupying around a third of the device's width, and a long pop-up camera taking up the majority of the top edge. As LetsGoDigital points out, the latter option could contain much more than just the selfie camera due to its length.

However, pop-up cameras seem to have taken a back seat to the punch-hole concept. Although devices such as the Vivo Nex and the Oppo Find X utilized mechanical pop-up cameras, it seems major manufacturers have preferred to take the camera-hole route to increase the screen-to-body ratios of their products. Asus has not neglected this fact in the design patents, which show a handset with no notch and a camera hole in the top left-hand corner, similar to Huawei’s Nova 4.

There is the possibility that the patented designs are related to whatever product Asus is going to follow the ZenFone 5 series with. It’s also possible that developers at the Taiwanese company simply want to patent numerous options even though some of them may never see the light of day. With 2019 looking like it could be an incredible year for smartphone releases, it will be those with the most attractive and innovative designs that are likely to end up becoming best sellers.

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