HMD Global, the Finnish licensee of Nokia-brand, is rumored to be working on a flagship device with penta-lens setup. While we have heard rumors about the existence of such a device based on Zeiss’ patented technology, now a live photo of the purported device has made its way to the internet.
The image shared originally on Baidu shows the back panel of an upcoming Nokia smartphone with a total of six holes. One of those CNC-drilled holes appears to be the LED flash as seen from the large white circular shape inside. The other five holes could be meant for the image sensors. The image, which has now been taken down from Baidu, shows Zeiss branding below the camera lens that sits on top of the assembly.
In terms of setup, one can see that three holes are vertically aligned in the form of a straight line while other two are placed on either side. There is a Nokia logo in the middle similar to that of Nokia 6.1 Plus, and the Android One logo is printed at the bottom of the device.
The leaked picture only shows the back of the device, and there is no picture to show the front panel. It is safe to assume that we are looking at near bezel-less display design that might even include an in-display fingerprint sensor.
It is not clear how the penta camera setup on this purported Nokia smartphone will work. However, Zeiss’ patent explains a rotating lens mechanism where it explains the pentalens setup rotating around a fixed optical setup and capturing photos. The algorithm will then use images based on detail from all these image sensors. Light, a camera hardware startup, is working on smartphones with up to nine different lens.
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Huawei currently sells its flagship P20 Pro with three lens on the back. There are rumors of Apple adopting triple lens solution next year while Samsung and LG could also launch smartphones with a total of up to five lens sometime this year or early next year.