For a long time now, notches have been the way to go around having a selfie camera, plus an almost full screen display. They started with big notches, and have reduced to being smaller, and even being punch-holes like on the new S10 series. If you didn’t want a notch, then the solution has been rising/pop-up cameras, or flip-ups like the ASUS Zenphone 6.
Last year OPPO announced the OPPO Find X (read review) which I found overpriced but had the best design I would say of 2018. It looked really really good with its minimal bezels, and clean front. The pop up camera mechanism though really amazing, had its challenges that made most of us fear how it would last after months of use.
Well, pop-up and rising cameras + notches are about to be obsolete now as OPPO through their Twitter account are teasing a working under-display selfie camera. This will change the game completely when launched because for the first time there will be no need for moving parts, or cut-outs to accommodate the selfie camera – of which the only other solution has been doing away with the selfie camera completely.
OPPO’s sibling company VIVO was the first to sell a device with an in-display fingerprint scanner – the VIVO X21. And it makes sense that OPPO becomes first to announce a in-display selfie camera.
Having a camera under the display means the quality of the photos won’t be as good as normal selfie cameras. And this may take some time to solve because people who care about selfies don’t want bad photos. We however still don’t know how long it’ll take before we see a phone ship with an under-display selfie shooter.
Update: Xiaomi has also teased a working variant of the Mi 9 with an under-display selfie camera.
