In the past few years, all the design efforts from smartphone companies have been focused on increasing the screen-to-body ratio of smartphones. We have seen various innovations in the past two years including the notched displays, punch-hole style cutout displays which we first got to see in Honor View 20 and then on Samsung Galaxy A8 and Galaxy S10. Lately, we have also been witnessing the pop-up style selfie camera on a lot of flagship devices, with the latest example being the OnePlus 7 Pro. The companies have also experimented with flipping and slider cameras as well. However, according to this most recent news, we might be getting to see an innovation from Oppo and Xiaomi, which will include a selfie camera housed under a fully functional display. Here is what we know about this new tech from Xiaomi and Oppo as of now.
Xiaomi and Oppo New In-Display Selfie Camera Details
Unlike the other selfie camera designs like the pop-up mechanism or the punch-hole style cutout, there is nothing of that sort in Oppo’s latest prototype. On taking a look at the newest upload on Oppo’s official Twitter account we a see a device with a selfie camera which is entirely hidden under the display and does its job from beneath the surface. In the past, Oppo has tried its hand on both the slider mechanism camera through the Find X and with the side pivoted slider mechanism through the Oppo Reno.
OPPO’s VP Brian Shen has also taken on Weibo to post the same prototype video of this new camera technology. However, over there, the executive has also said that the quality of images on the under-display selfie camera cannot be as good as the cameras on the outside. To this, he added, “However, the realization of new technology is developed to perfection.” Even though Oppo has teased this new technology in full-fledged form, there is no news about whether or not Oppo plans on releasing a phone with this tech any time soon.
Working of Xiaomi In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
While Oppo was the first one to tweet about this new tech, Xiaomi did not shy away from taking to the same platform to tease the latest technology. The Chinese giant uploaded a prototype video with the display tech mounted on a Mi 9 smartphone side by side the original Mi 9. The video demonstrates the working of the in-display selfie camera. On its official Weibo page, Xiaomi has uploaded an infographic describing the functioning of this new technology. Xiaomi’s co-founder Lin Bin also noted on Weibo that this new technology would be coming soon, but did not say precisely when.
Xiaomi’s infographic notes that while taking the pictures, the display area over the camera turns transparent and the material used here has “low reflection and high permeability”. This ensures that the light does not hinder the image formation on the sensor on display. Also, Xiaomi has noted that the technology used on the prototype is their “independent intellectual property,” meaning that the Xiaomi technology could be different from the Oppo one. Now we have to see when both of these brands rush to bring the new technology to market and how they will be able to compete in camera quality with the pre-existing tech.
