The folks over at the USPTO did grant South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung a design patent (No. US D697,886 S) today that depicts a smartphone which is large in size – clearly pointing to the very real possibility of a Galaxy device (the Samsung Galaxy S5, anyone?) which will not feature hardware buttons that are located on the front. Originally filed on July 20, 2012, this is a new design patent which made an appearance hot on the heels of another patent which was filed by Samsung, showing off a different buttonless handset that has some similarities as well, don’t get me wrong.
Some of the sketches which were thrown into the mix in patent No. D697,886 S do show a mysterious rectangle that is located on the upper right back side of the device. This could be an ideal point to stash away a fingerprint scanner, something that next generation flagship models would all seem to come with. Apart from that, the back of the device also points to a camera with flash, with a possible speaker located at the bottom.
Not only that, what looks to be a sensor that is visible at the top of the handset’s front, located right next to a possible power button, remains undisclosed – although who knows, it could be a 3.5mm headset jack for all that it is worth. All in all, this is clearly in the same vein as previous Galaxy smartphones with minor design changes here and there.
