We appreciate the edge-to-edge smartphones whose builders keep pushing the limits. But this finesse of the borders is obtained at the price of a certain sacrifice. The traditional notch as a solution for housing the front sensors was not unanimous. In less than two years, alternatives have been found at the original slot of the iPhone X. Xiaomi goes from its own concept of moving the sensors in a kind of inverted notch.
Xiaomi patents a smartphone with an external notch
These are the illustrations of a patent filed by the manufacturer that allow us to discover this concept of inverted notch smartphone that is reminiscent of Zenbook S13, Asus laptop presented at the beginning of the year at CES Las Vegas. The front camera of the PC is housed in a rather thin plate placed on the top of the camera, which allows the screen to cover 97% of the usable area.
Unlike the Asus PC, the shape of this plate is rather protruding and makes the smartphone less attractive. But this is only a patent. Xiaomi could finally take inspiration from many other thoughtful alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy A80's sliding and rotating camera, or the simpler variant of the Oppo Find X.
The patent in question, spotted by Tigermobiles was filed in May 2018 and published April 23, 2019. Below are the illustrations from the document.
