Xiaomi patents a DSLR-like smartphone camera system that uses a single sensor

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Photo courtesy of Yanko Design

Xiaomi might have been planning something interesting for its smartphone camera system. Reputable tipster Digital Chat Station found that the Chinese company has patented a DSLR-like camera zoom system for smartphones, which only uses a single camera on the rear.

In the patent, the smartphone houses a large camera sensor with a variable focal length and physically moves, just like the cameras. As the current smartphone photography trend is the more sensors more impressive a camera system is, it's refreshing to see such implementation. Besides that, if Xiaomi used a powerful sensor in this system, it could be a game changer.

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However, Xiaomi is not the first smartphone maker that thinks of this idea. Previously, Samsung introduced the Galaxy K Zoom and S4 Zoom with variable focal length cameras, but they're some heavy devices. Sony's Xperia 1 IV also offers a camera system with variable focal length and somehow hid it well without much protruding. Therefore, compared to Xiaomi's solution, Sony's might make even more sense to keep things how people like nowadays, which is thin and light.

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