Expect 2021’s upcoming Android phones to embrace under-display selfie cameras
The new tech is expanding
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The next step forward for smartphone displays is to banish notches and punch-holes – and to do that, manufacturers need to find ways of putting a front-facing camera under the screen. According to one tipster, the second half of 2021 is when this will happen in a big way.
The usually reliable@UniverseIcehas tweeted that phones fromSamsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and ZTE are all going to come with under-display selfie cameras in the second half of the year, so there are a lot of innovative new products to look forward to.
No mention ofAppleand the iPhone in this particular leak – it’s likely that Apple will wait until the technology is refined even further before using it, so theiPhone 13will most likely still come with a notch (albeit a smaller one).
One of the phones mentioned in the leak, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4, wasalready rumoredto be coming with an under-display camera, so it looks likely that these predictions are accurate – even if we can’t say for sure until the products have actually launched.
The second half of the year is when the Under Display Camera officially debuts, including at least Samsung (folding), Xiaomi (MIX4), OPPO (folding), vivo and ZTE (greatly improved version)April 19, 2021
It’s also worth noting that @UniverseIce is predicting that both the Samsung and Oppo models with cameras under the screen will be folding phones – so straight away that makes us think of theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 3as a prime candidate.
TheZTE Axon 20 5Gwas the first phone to reach the consumer market with a camera embedded in the screen, though the photo quality from it wasn’t particularly good. Today’s leak hints that ZTE’s next attemptwill be much better.
Of course getting a camera that can take good-quality pictures through a touchscreen is no easy task – it looks as though most manufacturers are exploring the idea ofusing a second screenbuilt into the main one in order to make this work properly.
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The benefit is that the front of the phone can be all display, with super-thin bezels and no notches getting in the way of whatever’s on screen. Once all of these phones appear, we’ll be sure to test them and their selfie cameras rigorously.
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
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