Vivo to launch a smartphone with four punch hole cameras?

Vivo has patented a design for a smartphone that has four punch hole cameras in the front. The patent shows three different ways in which Vivo could implement this design.

Punch hole camera displays have become somewhat ubiquitous these days. From Samsung Galaxy Note 10 to Motorola One Vision, the trend of a punch hole camera display has been seen in some of the most interesting smartphones launched in 2019. Now, word is that Vivo intends to take this trend a step further by introducing a smartphone with multiple punch hole cameras.

The company has filed a patent with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) for a smartphone with four punch hole cameras in the front. The patent, which was first spotted by TigerMobiles, shows that the company could implement this design in three different ways.

In the first case, the company would place a punch hole camera in each of the four corners of the phone's display.

In the second case, the company would place two punch hole cameras on the right and left corners of the phone in a pill-shaped cutout.

In the third case, the company would place two punch hole cameras on the two ends of the smartphone, but without the pill shaped cutout. The schematics also show that the phone would come with a triple rear camera setup with a flash.

Vivo's new camera design certainly looks interesting, if not entirely appealing. But it also raises a couple of important questions. First, do we really need to have four cameras on the front? And second, what purpose will having punch-hole cameras on each of the four ends of a smartphone's display serve?

The good news, however, is that these are just the design schematics that have been patented by the company and there is no evidence that Vivo intends to actually turn them into actual smartphones. At least not yet.

But we won't be entirely surprised if Vivo launches a smartphone with a wacky design next year. Till then, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.