In the world of patents with weird designs, Vivo has just patented a smartband with a curved display and a heart rate sensor. And if the development proceeds further, we may see a fitness tracker from the company soon. Vivo has slowly been shifting its focus to accessories such as earbuds and smartwatches, besides its primary smartphone business this year.
The patent, which appeared today on CNIPA (China’s Intellectual Property Administration), seems to have been applied by Vivo on April 13, 2020. The design is reminiscent of the previously launched Xiaomi and Realme Smart Band, however, the dial has a slightly tweaked rectangular design with rounded corners.
At the top is what seems to be a display area with a cut-out which could be a speaker for sound output. The display area seems to curve slightly onto the sides, but we are not sure what is the actual touch area in this design.
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As seen in other fitness bands, the final design could very well have bezels around the touch area and hence we would advise you to take it with a pinch of salt for now. Moving on, the straps extend from the Band face and we see a similar pattern with a circular design on the grip locks and a similar shaped hook to get locked on.
One of the sides of the strap can be detached from the band revealing a charger strip that is found on other fitness trackers like Realme Smart Band. This allows the users to directly plug the band into a USB-A port but the design is widely criticised for easy wear and tear with time. A more viable solution would be charging via magnetic contact points at the back like the Mi Band 5.
Interesting part of the smartband is on the rear where there is a squircle cutout and this could be the heart rate sensor for real time heart rate monitoring. That said, the type of sensor and functionality remains to be seen on the final design.
As we often say, not all patents see the light of the day but the design of Vivo Smart Band looks more practical and we would love to see an affordable fitness tracker from the company soon.
