Realme's first under-display camera phone looks to have been spotted

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The patent images just affirm it

Realme 8s 5G
(Image credit: Realme)

The smartphone industry is slowly banishing those awkward notches and even unwanted punch-holes from phones in favour of under-display camera phones. But the adaption of this new technology is taking its own sweet time to become mainstream. 

Meanwhile, we do have some success stories to refer to, including the first commercially available ZTE Axon 20 5G, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, and the very fresh Mi MIX 4. But, they are not flawless, though exemplary for sure. New technology is bound to go through some unprecedented challenges and even known hurdles. And, this is what most of the smartphone manufacturers currently are dealing with. 

Nevertheless, early adopters have shown the world the best possible way of avoiding those unwanted cutouts. 

The market is slowly taking a grip on it, and new manufacturers are prepping their offerings where the selfie camera slips in under the display and doesn’t require a cutout on the surface. So far, we have heard many names, including Xiaomi, Oppo, and now Realme is expected to join this bandwagon.

The patent filing says it all...

Realme under-display camera phone patent image

(Image credit: Realme)

There have been talks around Realme prepping its first under-display selfie camera phone for quite some time now, with an official teaser even giving a peek-a-boo of it.

Now, a new patent filing by Realme offers enough proof that whatever we have heard so far could be true. 

The patent filing spotted first by the folks at TheMobileHunt shows several sketches that strongly suggest the device in question doesn’t have any sort of cutouts. There is no notch, nor a punch-hole that we are seeing of late on almost all Android phones. 

However, one might think the device has a pop-up selfie camera. But this doesn’t look like the case either as Realme’s CEO Madhav Sheth mentioned in an interview that the pop-up selfie tech is unlikely to make a return. 

The patent images further reveal the phone has a rectangular-shaped camera module on the back panel that houses three sensors along with an LED flash. Going by the patent images, the device has a power button on the right side and volume buttons on the left. The bottom part has cutouts for a USB Type-C port and a SIM tray. As per the images, there is no fingerprint scanner on the back, nor there is any mounted on the side of the phone. So, we suspect that the phone has an under-display fingerprint reader as well. 

It is worth mentioning that diagrams inside the patent don’t guarantee an actual design of a Realme phone with an under-display camera phone

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Naina Batra
Naina Batra

For the past seven plus years, Naina has been an avid follower of the consumer technology industry, with a special focus on gadgets. Her areas of focus include the broad world of smartphones, apps, wearables, and other consumer electronics. Always on the lookout for new and unique bits, Naina constantly seeks to find ways to share her knowledge with readers in a fashion that benefits both.