Xiaomi published patents dating March 29, 2019, showing two smartphones with near full-screen displays and two vivid and bizarre notch and front-camera setups. Apparently, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi applied for patents at World Intellectual Property Office last year in May which eliminates the probability of it being an April 01st prank.
Speaking about the two patents, one of the patents shows dual front camera setup placed at the bottom center of the device i.e. at the chin. The phone has a nearly full-screen display and if we go by the report published by LetsGoDigital, having a notch at the bottom will actually give a sense of a notchless phone as people are attuned to see a notch on the top and since these patent show no notch on the top, having a notch at the chin is less noticeable.
Courtesy: LetsGoDigitalHowever, the second patent which shares a somewhat similar form factor as the first one shows a distinct notch placement. According to the patent sketch, the corresponding device will have a dual front camera setup, however, the two sensors will be placed on two different sides of the chin i.e. one on the right and one on the left. Both the patents show that if Xiaomi chooses to actually materialize such a design, these two will be spun out as two different lineups.
However, smartphone makers and tech companies usually patent designs and whatnot just to prevent others from patenting first and since using patents involves paying a royalty to the patentee, the first party receives a sizeable revenue from the one who shares the patent. Take the 5G infrastructure for example. This upcoming type of network is humongous and a number of companies use their patents together to create it. Once established, users using the 5G network will have to pay royalties to the concerning parties.
Coming back to Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker is often considered as the Apple of China and has one of the largest markets in both China and India. It recently unveiled Xiaomi Mi 9 along with its midrange lineup of Redmi Note 7 and Note 7 Pro. It is also working on rolling out its first Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G and a foldable phone as well. Stay hooked up with us to know more about Xiaomi and other topics.
