Samsung patents pop-up rotating camera design

The Galaxy A80 was Samsung’s first and only smartphone with a rotating camera mechanism. It looks like Samsung is working on another rotating camera design based on a new patent.

Samsung’s patent was published in January this year by the World Intellectual Property Office. The patent spotted by Lets Go Digital, shows a Samsung smartphone with a rotating camera mechanism where the rear sensor doubles as a selfie camera. There are three cameras at the back with a mechanism that pushes up one sensor and rotates it 180 degrees to function as a selfie camera.

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The functionality is similar to the Galaxy A80 where all the rear cameras rotated to work as selfie cameras. But in this Samsung phone, the camera pops up and then rotates towards the front. Based on the patent, the primary sensor of the rear camera setup will act as the selfie camera. This would mean better quality selfies, and also a true all-screen design. The rotating camera design looks complicated though, and it could require delicate handling of the smartphone.

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Pop-up cameras were once the rage and it was adopted by most smartphone brands. The technology did not stick though with the introduction of punch-hole cameras which is currently the go-to design. Motorola One Fusion+ is probably the only recent smartphone to feature a pop-up selfie camera. Smartphone brands have also tried their hand at under-display cameras but we’re yet to see one that performs as expected.

Samsung making a comeback for pop-up selfie cameras will be an interesting sight. Other than the Galaxy A80, there’s no other Samsung camera where the company used rotating cameras. It has stuck to the notch or punch-hole cameras for its flagship, mid-range and budget phones.