The era of smartphones with a physical keyboard is far behind, and so is the trend of devices with wacky form factors. However, a design patent filed by the Chinese smartphone maker vivo (via Gizchina) suggests that the company is experimenting with the idea of a phone with a twist-and-rotate module at the bottom.

One side of the rotating module has a physical keyboard while the other side is all screen. Ideally, the keyboard side of the module will be used for tasks that involve a lot of typing such as chatting or answering emails, while the display side will just add more screen real estate for media consumption and gaming.

However, it is not entirely an alien design, as the Nokia 5700 Xpress Music and Nokia 3250 launched over a decade ago rocked a similar twist-and-rotate aesthetics. But this is a patent application we are talking about, which means the device might not make it past the concept stage and necessarily be launched as a commercially available product.