We've seen a recent absence of the LED indicator for notifications, in smartphone manufacturers' quest for bigger screens and smaller bezels, but Samsung appears to have a plan for bringing back the useful feature.
As discovered by LetsGoDigital, the South Korean company has filed five design patents with China's National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) on October 16th, 2019. All of the patents surround the idea of having a graphical interface around the selfie camera, which itself is in a punch hole on the screen.
In the patents, Samsung explains that the small area inside the punch hole surrounding the camera may be used as an indicator for many actions, such as a tiny progress bar for when downloading files, a video recording indicator, and more.
Most of the patent examples are showing a pill-shaped punch hole, which suggests two selfie cameras inside, except for two that show a single, circular camera module, possibly planned for a different product line. In addition, the camera modules are always positioned on the top left of the screen, except for one example where it is centered.
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We've already seen Samsung introduce smartphones with pill-shaped selfie camera modules, such as the mid-2019 Galaxy S10 5G, although the company's newer Galaxy S20 line only features a single punch hole camera.
If those patents are going to make it into a product, we can reasonably assume that it's the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 to be the first one getting an indicator surrounding its punch hole selfie camera. In addition, this confirms that it will not have a futuristic under-display camera, but a punch hole selfie shooter still.
Earlier rumors claimed that the Note 20 was to have no punch hole cameras, as reports suggested Samsung is preparing for its timely launch, to likely happen in August.
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Rado is a former tech writer for PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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