Huawei to Release New Bezel-less Smartphone with In-Screen Camera

Huawei announced it would release the bezel-less smartphone Nova 4 with new in-screen camera on December 16. Nova 4 is the successor of last generation’s Nova 3,  but comes with a brand new design.

On Nov. 26, Huawei released a teaser image of a bezel-less smartphone with an in-screen camera due to release in December.

From the teaser image that Huawei released, it seems like the company will launch a new bezel-less smartphone next month. It will have a brand new look, different from all the other bezel-less smartphones on the market.

Huawei published the leaked info on its Weibo account. In the post, a smartphone is visible with a hole in its top left corner with a slogan that reads “full-screen selfie pole” and “See you in December”.

After the post was published, Huawei’s “pole bezel-less smartphone” quickly became a hot topic on Weibo, and consumers even made lists describing the evolution of bezel-less smartphones. The image below shows that the first generation of bezel-less smartphones was the Samsung S8 with a narrow chin and forehead. In the second generation of bezel-less phones, the notch design was introduced and the classic example is the iPhone X. After its release, almost every new flagship smartphone featured this design. The only difference was the width and shape of the notch.

This year, many Chinese smartphone companies attempted to find new alternatives to avoid the notch design, for example the Pop-Up Front Camera of the Vivo NEX, the mechanical slider of the OPPO Find X and the double screen on the Nubia X. Now, Huawei’s new design “pole bezel-less” may represent the next generation’s full-screen technology.

While people speculated about the appearance of the new product, TV show footage leaked the front view of the smartphone. The show was celebrating the 18th birthday of Huawei’s spokesman Jackson Yee. While celebrating his birthday, Yee showed his phone wallpaper to the audience and unintentionally gave the public a sneak peak of the new product.

The screenshot of the footage confirms the design displayed in the poster. Instead of a notch, Huawei will use an in-screen camera technology with the lens placed in the top left corner. By using this new design, the screen-to-body ratio of this new phone may exceed 90%.

For those who dislike the notch and slider design, Huawei’s new layout may be an interesting alternative.

Featured photo credit to Huawei weibo.