The world was appalled by the smartphone notch, mocked it, grew used to it and now it’s mostly accepted as a design feature. We’ve even got punch-holes now, but still… something feels off. Luckily, Oppo just unveiled its first phone with an in-display selfie camera at Mobile World Congress Shanghai.
What this means, is a phone with an uninterrupted, edge-to-edge display. First, the in-display fingerprint sensor and now the under-display camera sensor? Hey, anything that makes for a better browsing, video-watching and photo-editing experience is fine with us.
Other companies like OnePlus have opted for a pop-up selfie camera as an antidote to the notch, which looks pretty good, but we worry about wear and tear… or dropping the phone and the camera not retracting in time.
What sorcery is this?
OPPO's brand new solution for full-screen display – Under-screen Camera (USC) has just been unveiled here at #MWC19 Shanghai! #MoreThanTheSeen pic.twitter.com/k5qEQ3QNta
— OPPO India (@OPPOIndia) June 26, 2019
To make this work, Oppo uses a camera module with a highly transparent lens. The camera features a large sensor with a greater pixel size to avoid light refraction. It also uses a combination of algorithms for multi-frame HDR, defogging, and white balance correction to make photos look about as good as they would with a standard selfie camera.
It also had to go back to the drawing board with the actual display. A redesign on the display’s pixel structure allows light to pass through the screen and to the lens and camera sensor.
As the in-display fingerprint sensor did, we expect this technology to catch on like wildfire. But we also don’t know when we’ll see the first real full-screen device in the market. When we do, you’ll know about it.
Source: The Verge