OPPO's latest patent might reveal its next-gen smartphone design language ahead of time

OPPO is now allegedly planning a major product event scheduled for November 2021. The rumored successors to the Reno6 series of smartphones might be among the devices to be unveiled during this conference, alongside the OEM's long-touted first-gen foldable phablet. Now, the OEM may have inadvertently leaked a potential design for its mid-range counterparts.

The patent in question, filed with the Chinese intellectual property office CNIPA in late December 2020 and approved on October 22, 2021, may indeed show where OPPO is going with the appearance of its next-gen smartphones. Unfortunately, the diagrams in question eschew the direction implied by the new K9 Pro for one that is clearly an iterative upgrade for the prevailiing Reno devices.

Accordingly, the schematics show a narrow rear camera hump that houses 3 vertically-stacked main lenses. Then again, these apertures have squircle outlines, as opposed to the usual circles; furthermore, there is an option on a 4th sensor, in a smaller square alongside them. Therefore, that might be a feature of Reno 7 Pro or Pro+ models, with the more basic triple-camera hump reserved for the vanilla 7.

Otherwise, the newly-claimed smartphone design calls for front and rear panels that seem to be flat from the front, although sdie-on views reveal that both curve back toward a thin frame. Therefore, the Reno 7 series' allegedly market-wowing internals might come packaged in glass sandwiches such as these on their release.

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