OnePlus, the only company that registered sales growth in the United States in 2020, wants to hide the selfie camera on the edge of the phone. The Dutch website LetsGoDigital discovered a patent application from the Chinese manufacturer, which presents an innovative solution: that of housing the lens under a transparent plate in the upper frame and, therefore, completely freeing up screen space for the user.

According to the folks in the Netherlands, the application was filed with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) in mid-2020, but the full documentation, with 23 pages detailing the design of the hidden camera on the edge of the OnePlus phone, was only released last Thursday (04/02). This new information rules out the presence of the innovation in the OnePlus 9 lineup, which is about to be launched and, as the images already leaked, there is no way to have future technology built in.

Advantages and disadvantages

OnePlus is reportedly betting not only on innovative design but also on cost-cutting by developing a smartphone with a camera on the edge. The cost of a screen without the traditional cutout to house a selfie camera is lower than that of one that requires a hole-punch. This is a positive point for the project. The second argument in favor is that users also prefer a fixed camera, available at all times, but that does not take up too much screen space on the smartphone, something that positioning it on the edge of the device would give them.

Not everything is positive in the evaluation of the project that is still on paper. Installing a camera on the top edge of the phone, outside the screen, will require some extra effort on the part of OnePlus or other companies that show interest in developing it. similar projects. Since the hole to house the camera above the screen, on the edge of the phone, would need to be very small, its lens would also have to be reduced. And that's where the problem lies.

Pete Lau, CEO of OnePlus, promised at the beginning of the year that would transform the company into a reference in the mobile photography segment. Recently, it made progress on its promise by closing partnership with Hasselblad, a leading company in the sector and which will supply the lenses for the OnePlus 9. The problem is that, in the case of a phone with a camera on the edge, the lens, practically invisible, would hardly be able to take good quality photos. Recent launches with increasingly larger cameras on the back, and with higher resolution, prove that the larger the lens, the better the photo quality usually is.

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Image: Razvan B/Flickr