Xiaomi boasts ‘perfect’ under-display camera solution that’s ready for mass production next year
- Xiaomi will mass produce smartphones with under-display cameras next year, while ZTE is expected to unveil its own solution next week
- Under-display camera phones could become mainstream, but manufacturers need to solve difficult problems
In recent years, smartphone makers have been racking their brains to offer users a true full-display experience. Some are offering pop-up selfie cameras, but they haven’t been popular among consumers, and most smartphones still have notches or hole-punch displays. But it seems like we’re now closer to having handsets with uninterrupted full displays.
Xiaomi said that its third-generation under-display selfie camera solution is ready for mass production next year. This follows experiments with its previous two generations over the past year.
The Chinese gadget maker won’t be the first to put a camera beneath the screen of a phone for consumers. As soon as next week, ZTE is expected to unveil a new handset named Axon 20 5G that features an under-display selfie camera.
But for now, no company has released an actual consumer product with the technology. One reason is that it’s difficult to make.
Normal smartphone displays, packed with pixels, usually don’t let in enough light for a camera underneath to take good, well-lit pictures. So instead, smartphone makers need customised screens that manipulate pixels to let enough light pass through.
One common method is to lower the display’s PPI (pixels per inch) in the area around the camera. But it’s not perfect because it creates a colour difference between that area and the rest of the screen, which doesn’t look all that great.
Xiaomi and ZTE appear to have different solutions, but they both have to solve the same problem: enabling the camera to take good pictures while still giving users a good screen experience.
As shown in a video posted by Xiaomi vice-president Zeng Xuezhong on Weibo, the top quarter of the smartphone screen turns black when taking a selfie, presumably to allow enough light to get through. Xiaomi boasts that its latest solution offers “perfect” selfie pictures and display effects.
Smartphones with under-display cameras won’t become mainstream this year, said Counterpoint analyst Ethan Qi, even though some vendors already have mass production capabilities. He said we may see two or three of these phones this year as companies try to test the market’s reaction. But their performance might still lag ordinary selfie cameras.
In the long term though, under-display selfie cameras could potentially become a mainstream solution once brands figure out how to perfect the technology, boost production capability, and lower production costs, Qi added.
