On a fan community page on Chinese social media platform Weibo, hundreds of users have posted comments and pictures, some covered in little red hearts, to express their admiration for a star they affectionately call Kun Kun. “Kun Kun flies bravely, iKun will always follow him; Kun Kun never gets old, and will remain a blue-chip till the end,” some users wrote alongside the picture. “Kun Kun,” whose full name is Zhang Kun, is neither a pop star nor actor. Instead, he is one of China’s most prominent fund managers who oversees around 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in assets at E Fund Management, an established Chinese asset management firm. Zhang’s followers, who label themselves “iKun,” (“i” is a homophone for the Chinese word love), have also created accounts on Weibo posing as his “global fan clubs.” “Kun Kun, I would like to accompany you for many, many years,” a follower wrote. “Let’s witness both the bull and bear markets, but still return with young hearts.”
The race to full-screen smartphone displays has given us a number of workarounds from notches to pop-up and rotating cameras and punch holes. Manufacturers will continue to experiment until they can get over the hump and the latest example is a patent from vivo for a quad punch-hole smartphone.
The patent unearthed by Tigermobiles was granted by the CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) and reveals a total of three different designs that all sport multiple camera cutouts on the display.
The first design positions four front-facing cameras in each corner of the screen, reminiscent of the Amazon Fire Phone. We also see two versions with dual cutouts in the top corners. The first one appears to have larger cutouts for the cameras with a black bar between them while the second design opts for smaller cutouts that are integrated with the display. We also get a look at the back of the device which appears to feature a quad-camera setup.
We don’t have a clear picture of what vivo is aiming to do with these multiple camera cutouts apart from adding varying lenses. As usual, when dealing with patents, it’s not promised that these devices will make it to the market any time soon. We’ll certainly be on the lookout for more news on vivo’s quad punch hole ambitions.
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