Huawei's rear camera arrays could look like D-pads in the future

We’ve grown used to Huawei‘s recent camera array designs which usually take the form of strips, slabs, or circles. Now, it seems the company could be experimenting with a new shape.

Spotted by LetsGoDigital, the phone design displayed in a patent filing features a rear camera array arranged in a cross. It could easily be mistaken for a game controller’s D-pad, but no, these are definitely cameras and sadly won’t be the genesis of a new HUAWEI gaming phone.

The camera array features four cameras at each end with a flash in the middle. The bottom lens seems to be a zoom lens, as its reminiscent of periscope camera setups we’ve seen on previous HUAWEI phones.

The Chinese firm has largely reserved periscope lenses for flagships, but this phone’s design does differ from HUAWEI’s recent flagships.

For starters, there’s no waterfall screen. It’s all flat up front, with a minimal but noticeable bezel around the display. There’s also a headphone jack mounted on top, something that has gone extinct on premium HUAWEI phones. These little design cues could point to this being a mid-range device.

Either way, this definitely won’t be the blueprint for the HUAWEI Mate 40 series. Earlier leaks have pointed to a similar design to the Mate 30 series with a circular rear camera array.

Finally, some other things to note is an under-screen selfie camera, which appeared on previous HUAWEI patents, and should become more common on devices now that the ZTE Axon 20 broke the ice.

As always, patent filings don’t necessarily lead to mass production and widespread availability of a product, but this design arguably has a better chance of release than most recent HUAWEI filings, including that completely wacky Mi Mix Alpha-inspired device.

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