Vivo Patent Applications Reveal Quad Front Camera Phones With Hole-Punch Design: Report

Vivo was among the few smartphone makers that kickstarted the whole ‘selfie phone' trend, packing high-resolution front cameras in its phones. The company is now looking to shake things up and taking its selfie-centric smartphone approach to the next level. Patents granted to Vivo in China suggest that the company is experimenting with the idea of equipping its phones with four front cameras. The patent database reveals schematics of a phone with three different hole-punch designs housing no less than four selfie cameras with multiple positioning options.

The patents filed by Vivo before CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) were first spotted by TigerMobiles, and show the schematics of a phone with four front cameras. The first implementation shows two pill-shaped hole-punch cutouts at the top left and right corners of the display. Each hole-punch houses two discrete selfie cameras.

The second design reveals four separate circular hole-punch cutouts for each camera. This arrangement sees the camera lenses grouped in clusters of two each, and positioned at the top left and right corners of the phone. The third implementation of a quad front camera design by Vivo positions one camera lens at each corner of the screen. This arrangement looks similar to the doomed Fire Phone from Amazon, which also had four cameras at each corner of the phone for motion tracking.

As for Vivo's patent, the design schematics for a quad front camera phone look realistic. But at the end of the day, they are patent diagrams, and don't necessarily mean that we will get to see such an implementation on a real Vivo phone in the near future. So far, we are also yet to come across any leaks or rumours of a Vivo phone packing four front cameras.