Towards the end of January, Chinese smartphone maker Oppo apparently filed a patent for some new smartphone designs. The folks over at Lets Go Digital created some renders based on the patent drawings.
Check out the patent drawings (as interpreted by Lets Go Digital) below:
The first patent is for a smartphone with a miniature pop-up display. The display is slightly smaller than the main display and pops out of the top of the smartphone about a third of the way. It is, quite frankly, one of the most bizarre ideas we’ve ever seen for a smartphone.
Check it out below:
Honestly, we can’t think of a single reason why having a mini display would make a smartphone better or more useful. It’s especially weird when you can see that Oppo plans to have the selfie camera built into the top bezel of the main smartphone’s body — so why do you need anything to pop up?
The next patent makes a bit more sense, which is a slide-out smartphone screen that pops out of the side.
Check it out below:
We realize that that just looks like two smartphones on top of each other, but the screen underneath is supposed to be attached to the one on top, and the image above shows the slide-out screen in its out-most state.
While this idea also looks very weird, we can at least think of a few applications for something like this, the first and most obvious being the side screen can feature on-screen controls for a video game displayed on the main screen.
It should be mentioned that just because a company patents something doesn’t mean that the company intends to actually create a product based on the patent. We might never see these ideas become real.
What do you think? Are these designs interesting to you, or do you think they’re too out there? Let us know in the comments.
NEXT: See the Oppo Reno’s shark fin-style pop-up camera in this GIF