Earlier today, Oppo VP, Brian Shen, posted a short video on Weibo, with a notch-less smartphone lying on a desk, the camera on which, after being opened, shows a white circular ring around what could be the location of the front-facing camera under the display, followed by a live view of the room’s ceiling. Further, to increase the credibility, the demonstrator hovered their finger over the part of the smartphone where the front-camera is allegedly situated. As of now, the video has also been shared by Oppo on their official twitter handle to spread the word to the masses.
You are taking a very first look at our under-display selfie camera technology. RT! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FrqB6RiJaY — OPPO (@oppo) June 3, 2019 In another development, Xiaomi has also teased a video of their under-display camera technology. The video shows the demonstrator with two smartphones, of which the one on the right has a notch on the top, whereas, the other on the left, has a notch-less display. The demonstrator then goes ahead and unlocks both the smartphones and keeps aside the one on the right (with a notch). Further, they open an app, followed by the camera app, and switch to the front camera and click a selfie.
— Alvin Tse #MiFan (@atytse) June 3, 2019 From what appears to be a leap ahead in technology, it is currently just a prototype for both the companies to demonstrate their potential. And it might take further improvements and refinements until the technology makes its way to a smartphone, meant for the masses. Irrespective of the time that it would take these companies to come up with a perfected technology, the one thing that shouts-out, is the fact that the pop-up mechanisms (currently used to get rid of the notch) that have a mechanical, motorized front-camera, popping-out as soon as the camera is initiated, could be replaced by an under-display camera, which would in-turn get rid of the wear-and-tear caused otherwise and make the smartphone less fragile. “At this stage, it’s difficult for under-display cameras to match the same results as normal cameras, there’s bound to be some loss in optical quality. But, no new technology jumps to perfection right away.” – said Brian Shen in a follow-up post.
