There is no doubt that smartphones with a camera under the screen are good and very convenient, and when they appear, we will discover smartphones from a completely new perspective. A front-facing camera is needed by a mass buyer, since there are critically few who can do without it. Because of this, manufacturers are not ready to release models without it and lose at least some sales. As a result, we have to put up with notches in the screen, or worse, holes. The camera under the screen looks like a real life saver, but are the manufacturers ready to offer it to us? Unfortunately, not yet, but I hasten to please you that there is less and less waiting. We will soon have screens without cutouts and holes. But not this year.
Someday everyone will have such a smartphone.
Smartphone with a camera under the screen
It takes a long time to explain all the advantages of using such a camera, but they all boil down to the fact that it is simply convenient and beautiful. It's like “packing” a fingerprint scanner under the screen, when we no longer need a huge scanner on the body and just put our finger directly on the screen. It still looks very futuristic.
Unfortunately, OPPO VP Brian Shen hinted the other day that smartphones with under-screen cameras probably won't start shipping in 2020. On the social network Weibo, he explained the situation with technology so that we understand what awaits us, and most importantly, what to expect.
Shen stated that people shouldn't have high hopes for under-screen cameras. He noted that the development is complex and it takes time to bring it to mind. He also expressed the hope that the technology will appear sooner or later.
Based on this, one can almost certainly say that such smartphones will not appear in 2020, half of which has already passed, and smartphones that will be released before the end of the year are almost ready. Even much of what will appear towards the end of the year is now at the stage of testing and bringing the sample to industrial readiness. Some changes are possible, but not as drastic.
If a company representative knew that they were almost ready to release something like that, he would, on the contrary, hint at the imminent appearance of a revolutionary solution or simply keep silent. It can be assumed that this was done in order to confuse competitors, but in the modern world of smartphones there are so few who use such solutions. Moreover, all technologies are gradually becoming unified and everyone knows about them
Cool when it is.
Therefore, you can be sure that this kind of assumptions indicate that we will not see smartphones with subscreen cameras in 2020.
It just so happens that OPPO was one of the first companies to introduce an under-display demo camera with Xiaomi. This was back in 2019 and many expected to see the first phones with this kind of technology in 2020.
When phones with cameras appear on the screen
Perhaps the difficulties will be solved by 2021, but it seems to me that the probability of this is about 35-40 percent. But, I am almost sure that they will appear no later than 2021.
Examples of selfies taken with the front subscreen camera have even surfaced on the web. They looked more or less dignified, but I would not say that they will always be like that. It looks like OPPO, Xiaomi and other companies want to improve this technology before they start using it in their smartphones.
Even if the reliability of the cameras does not raise any questions and they can be formally used now, the quality of the images still needs to be worked on. The technology is expensive and a new type of camera will appear on expensive devices, buying which users want to get the most out of them. Whatever happens, as with foldable smartphones, which folded only to fold. Companies simply won't be forgiven if a $ 1000+ phone takes pictures like a pair of thousand rubles.
So Xiaomi will see the camera under the screen.
I do not even exclude a scenario in which companies will not install such a camera in the main lines of smartphones, but will release something separate, so that in case of failure, they will not cast a shadow on the recognized flagships. If the technology manifests itself, it will gradually migrate to other brand lines.
Who designs phones with a camera under the screen?
If we talk about brands, then OPPO, Xiaomi and Samsung lead most of the developments in the direction of sub-screen cameras. Most likely, these companies will be the first to do something like this. It even seems to me that it is in this sequence. And when everything is ready, replicating the result by other companies will be a matter of technique.
The technology will spread especially well between brands Redmi, Realme, Vivo and OnePlus. The first is associated with Xiaomi and the rest are with OPPO. Many technologies between these brands are already very good and are moving quickly from one company to another.
I wonder how Apple will behave in the case of a massive transition to sub-screen cameras, which cannot simply pack the camera under glass. In the bangs iPhone there is a whole arsenal of sensors and scanners that are responsible for unlocking the face, building its three-dimensional model even in complete darkness using the IR sensor.
We continue to observe and hope that the screens will soon finally go the way, the end point of which will be complete framelessness. Some have already been able to do something similar by implementing the technology of a moving front camera, but such a mechanism takes up a lot of space inside the phone and something needs to be done about it. In an era 5G, when you need to install an additional modem and a larger battery, such use of the internal volume is simply unacceptable.