James Phang

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Smartphone Under-Display Selfie Camera

Smartphones in recent years have slowly decreased the display bezels. Smartphone manufacturers slowly adopted the notch concept and slowly decreased the size of the notch. The main goal is to have a smartphone that’s 100 per cent display and no bezel. Companies have already started using an under-display fingerprint scanner. The new technology has enabled manufacturers to decrease the bottom bezel, as there is no space needed to house a fingerprint scanner.

Other ways to hide the selfie camera

The one thing that is left for the manufacturer is to remove the selfie camera that most smartphones house at the top of the display. Some smartphones started using rotating/flip selfie cameras which have the 100 per cent display. One weakness of this method is the moving parts, as using moving parts increases the chance of malfunction due to constant strain and repeated use.

Breakthrough

ZTE has unveiled the ZTE Axon 20 5G that contains an under-display selfie camera embedded behind the display. The smartphone uses a 6.92inch 90Hz OLED panel at 1080p resolution. Where the camera is located there is a small square patch which displays part of the image in a lower resolution. However, when using the camera app this part of the display is switched off, thereby allowing light to pass through the display and into the camera.

Image Quality

Camera tests seen online indicate a rather hazy and soft image. It gives the impression of having the beauty filter on all the time. In low-light situations, the camera has a ton of noise and no detail. You can tell this is first-gen technology so hopefully the image quality gets better with every development cycle. Check out the image quality from the video below.

Video: The Smartphone Notch is (Almost) Dead by Mr Mobile

Summary

The emergence of under-display cameras shows promise, however from the image samples seen from the camera, a lot of development is needed until we start seeing this technology on flagship phones. As expected with first-gen technologies, they are released to test the waters and gauge what area of improvements are needed. We have seen this when Samsung released the Samsung Fold, then they released the successor which had major improvements and now is more usable. I am sure that in the next few years the technology will certainly improve and as more manufacturers get their hands on the technology, the refinement process will speed and the image quality will certainly improve. One side that manufacturers will have to consider is the ethical side of the technology. They will need to consider a way to notify the camera is in use to help maintain privacy.

Video: The first under-display selfie camera is here by Android Authority