Oppo N1 image leaked, has fancy ‘rear touchpanel’

Chinese company Oppo is working on a smartphone that has a touch panel on its back. The company claims that users will be able to scroll, double-click and long press with the backside touch feature of the upcoming Oppo N1.

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With a trackpad at the back, you’re enabled to “swipe through pages (or change songs), activate and control the camera or bind the actions to other apps as you see fit,” says Engadget.

The aim of this is to avoid what is referred to as “thumb fatigue.” You know, sharing the load. By cutting out simple repetitive gesture swipes like scrolling webpages for instance, you might also be left with a slightly less smudgy screen.

@evleaks, as the case usually is, also leaked a few snapshots of the N1 while the company’s quirky ads have also been making some splashes around the web with VentureBeat going on a rant about its sexual innuendo and “blatant sexism.”

The ad on the left was the one labeled “sexist” while the one on the right was Oppo’s off-the-wall response

LG’s new G2 smartphone has buttons on its back. We thought it odd for a bit until we considered the design’s logic. When holding a smartphone, there are at least four fingers at the back of the phone with your thumb doing all the hard work. Why not put the rest to work?

Our thumbs are pretty dumb (when it comes to keyboards). Consider typing on your laptop — your thumb is simply just going through the motions of mindlessly punching at the spacebar while the rest of the crew covers the letters and symbols.

Some people remain sceptical though. What if you wanted to wrap the Oppo N1 in a case? You wouldn’t be able to buy a one-size-fits-all pouch or cover. On the other hand, you could just get a specially designed cover with a little gap or window where the trackpad or buttons would be.

In all practicalities, this could probably work best with larger screen devices. Smaller smartphones, for example, won’t make the cut as it’s simply too uncomfortable to successfully use your index finger at the back of the device.

For now, we’ll give the novelty of the idea an apt thumbs-up. That’s until we get to do a hands-on of course.

Images via Android Police