Vivo is working on a smartphone with a rotating lower display

Vivo has acquired a patent for a new smartphone design with a rotating lower display. Here is how the smartphone may work.

Vivo X50 Pro (HT Tech)

Vivo is working on a new smartphone design that features a full-screen display and rotating bottom panel. The company has acquired a patent for the new design as well. The patent filing reveals the bottom panel can be rotated in 180 degrees.

The bottom panel, most likely to be a touchscreen, can be used even when completely rotated. In one of the diagrams, the phone is seen running a QWERTY keyboard. Another diagram shows the ability to scribble on the screen. According to Gizmochina, the panel will be a secondary screen that can be used as a viewfinder for rear cameras or displaying the notifications.

Apart from a rotating bottom panel, the rest of the phone looks identical to modern Android smartphones. The front houses a punch-hole camera module at the top centre. Volume buttons are located on the right edge. The power button is on the left. There is no dedicated fingerprint sensor slot. The feature could be embedded on the side button or the screen. The back-panel houses as many as three large camera sensors in a horizontal module.

vivo files design patent for a smartphone having rotatable display module on the bottom side. pic.twitter.com/MFZeBNOx6x

— the_tech_guy (@_the_tech_guy) July 17, 2020

That said, a patent filing does not necessarily translate into a commercial device. But it does give a peek at a company's outlook for the future. In this case, Vivo's concept phone looks different but quite identical to the rotating feature phones from the yesteryears. Of late, smartphone companies are more inclined towards building foldable phones, such as Galaxy Fold or Moto Razr. One of the recent phones with a similar rotating module is Asus 6Z. Samsung has also experimented with the concept with the Galaxy A80.