The Pop-Up camera is nothing new, we've seen many brands with many solutions, such as Xiaomi's Redmi K20 and Mi 9T series. The full-screen battle is still going on between manufacturers, with some thinking about thin bezels, others about screen cut-outs, but mechanical solutions are still seen in a minority of devices.
The patent for a pop-up camera system filed with China's National Property Management Institute is for an unknown type of Xiaomi phone, but it is not certain that it will ever be implemented. There have been examples. The interesting thing about it is that all the cameras, including the rear and selfie, would be hidden inside the house.
You can also see from the patent images that all the cameras have been designed into the pop-up unit, which in one part protects the camera lenses when not in use, and in other parts, neither the back nor the screen need to be cut out. Although that way the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and the rest can still be in the minimum coffee.
While the first picture may be of a mid-range Redmi, as only dual cameras are shown, the other patents show three and five rear cameras. Obviously they're thinking higher end, there's room for the 3 or 5 cameras that are already common in the MI series, but as we know, Redmi isn't sitting on its laurels either.
The patent has not yet been confirmed by the company, although they don't usually make a big deal of it. There is always a lot of secrecy about mechanical solutions, as this is one of the parts of a modern phone that is the number one source of failure. So users are also dubious about this solution for hiding cameras. We'll see...
