We all know that notches weren’t really a great design feature in smartphones, but it was necessary. Smartphone manufacturers followed notches and punch hole designs to increase the body-to-screen ratio for a few years.
However, the notches were just a temporary placeholder before the real thing was made possible: under-display selfie cameras. Yes, the technology is still not mass-producible, and smartphone manufacturers need more time. This is why many smartphones this year will be coming with popup, flip-up, and rotating selfie cameras. Oppo, on the other hand, is ready to make the transition to under-display selfie camera tech.
The feature is being revered as the next revolution in smartphone sensing, and top gunners, including Apple, Samsung, Google, and LG, would love to get their hands on a technology like this. However, Oppo got there before anyone else.
The Vice President of Oppo, Brian Shen, posted a video on Oppo’s official Twitter handle showing off the achievement. The video serves as proof and a first look at how the technology works. It has a smartphone that has no notch on its front. A finger swipes around a few times before opening the camera application, and that’s when the magic happens.
Under-Display Selfie Camera Tech Unveiled
No rotating or popup camera shows on top of the smartphone, but the screen starts displaying what’s in front of it. For a few moments, it will feel like it’s some kind of an illusion, or you’re being tricked somehow.
A person trains his finger on the center of the top edge of the display, and you can see the feedback on display. Moreover, the person presses his finger on the screen at that exact stop, and you can clearly see the whole display go black. This confirms the position of the under-display selfie camera in the smartphone.
Furthermore, the smartphone registers the tap and snaps a picture. This shows that not only is the under-display selfie camera not affecting the display, but it’s also not disrupting the touch sense. However, how good is the selfie camera itself? Sadly, not very much.
When talking about the quality of the under-display selfie camera and the quality of the image it captures, VP Brian Shen said that the quality of sensors like these is quite lower than the traditional front cameras that we are used to. Shen said that it would take the company some time to perfect the camera’s quality and the process of capturing images and videos from under the screen.
The quality of the under-display sensor is lower because the light is obviously not entering the sensor directly. Instead, it gets deflected and manipulated as it passes through the multiple layers between the top of the display to the opening of a sensor.
We love that a smartphone manufacturer has finally made a breakthrough in this regard. A large majority of people in the community would really love this technology to get better and show up in a commercial smartphone soon.
