Samsung’s next foldable phone could use an under-display camera

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If a new rumor is to be believed, the upcomingSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 3could have an under-display camera. This means users could finally be saying goodbye to annoying notches and punch-hole cutouts on theirfoldable phonescreens.

While it’s always worth taking rumors with a pinch of salt, there is some supporting evidence to these claims.Pocket Now, who first reported on the rumor, credited a “fairly reliable”sourceand the claims would match up withpatents that we knowSamsunghas been awarded for under-display cameras.

Hopefully, Samsung’s design can improve upon the current quality of under-screen cameras, if not we’d prefer a cutout to a less crisp image any day. We’ll just have to wait and see when the Galaxy Z Fold 3 releases.

How would the under-display camera work?

Under-display cameras are still fairly new, and the technology hasn’t yet been perfected. The general idea is that the camera works in a similar way to normal, just taking pictures from behind a screen rather than in front of it.

TheZTE Axon 20 5Gis the first commercially available smartphone with an under-display camera, but it didn’t blow us away with its image quality in our review. So far we’ve yet to see the technology on any other products.

Samsung was awarded an under-screen camera patent back in January, which could give us a hint at how it’d work on the Z Fold 3.

Its design sees two different panels making up a screen, one large one that takes up most of the space and a much smaller one that fills in the gap where a camera bezel would normally be.

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The camera is placed behind this smaller panel, which has a higher light transmission and a lower resolution to allow selfies and other front-facing camera pictures to be taken. However, for now, this is all speculation.

We will most likely have to wait for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to to be officially unveiled to find out for certain.

Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.

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