Huawei patents hint at a flagship phone with an under-display camera

Unlike Xiaomi and OPPO, Huawei hasn't showcased its in-display camera technology yet.

What you need to know

• Huawei patents suggest the company is working on a flagship phone with an under-display camera.
• Similar to the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, the phone will not have any volume buttons.
• Huawei compatriots OPPO and Xiaomi are also working on phones with under-display cameras.

Huawei could be planning to launch a new smartphone with an under-display selfie camera this year. The folks at LetsGoDigital have spotted two patents showing a phone featuring an under-display camera.

The patents reveal a phone with extremely curved edges and virtually no bezels. The display does not have a notch or hole-punch cutout, and nor do we find any evidence of a pop-up camera mechanism. This suggests the phone features an under-display camera, similar to the prototypes showcased by OPPO and Xiaomi last year.

The patents also reveal that the phone will not have volume buttons, just like the Mate 30 Pro. Users will have to use a virtual slider to control the volume, which will appear after double tapping on the phone's frame. While the patents show an identical "waterfall display," the camera system on the back is slightly different on both. One shows a quad-camera setup similar to the Mate 30 Pro, while the other shows a vertically-stacked triple-camera array.

Both the patents were filed by Huawei in October last year, so it is possible that Huawei could be planning to launch a new Mate series phone with an under-display camera this year. What also remains to be seen is if Huawei can beat Xiaomi and OPPO to launch the first smartphone with an under-display selfie camera. Samsung, too is rumored to launch a new phone with an under-display camera this year.

Losing access to TSMC would be catastrophic for Huawei