New teaser reveals the Oppo N1 will feature a rear touchpane

Earlier this week Oppo officially unveiled its Oppo N1 cameraphone, though few actual details are known about the phone’s hardware or design. Luckily, Oppo seems more than willing to tell us more.

Since they outed the handset, Oppo has been regularly updating its Weibo and Twitter accounts with minor teasers in order to build up hype for the upcoming device. While most of these teasers haven’t given us too much to get excited about, today’s latest N1-related tweet certainly has us intrigued. Apparently, the Oppo N1 will feature a rear touch panel!

As you can see in the ad below, Oppo is using a little bit of sex appeal to promote the N1, with the teaser showing the bare back of woman with the tag-line “Don’t just touch the front, the back is also interesting…” At the bottom of the teaser, are the words “N1 Rear Touch Panel. A brand new user experience.”

The idea of a rear touch panel isn’t technically anything new. Not only does the Playstation Vita utilize a panel on the back, but we’ve even seen a Google patent related to the idea of using rear touch on mobile devices. Still, this is the very first time we’ve heard about a handset actually utilizing such tech.

Why would you need a touch panel on the back? The most obvious reason is to give extra room to the front of the display without your hands getting in the way. It could also have something to do with the way the phone is used when going in for the perfect shot. Or perhaps Oppo could have some other entirely new reason for using a touch panel on the back of a phone. We really don’t know at this point, but Oppo clearly has our attention.

What do you think of the idea of a touch panel on the back of a handset, a good idea or merely a gimmick?