Under-display cameras might finally work as intended thanks to Oppo’s latest invention.
The new Oppo under-screen camera technology should allow for the front-facing camera to be placed under the display without having to compromise the integrity of the screen, as reported by The Verge.
Oppo is using smaller pixels to keep the same 400-ppi sharpness that we all have come to expect, which is the same as the rest of the OLED panel. This is unlike earlier renditions of under-display cameras, which reduce pixel density in the portion of the screen that covers the camera, as it lets more light pass through, but is noticeably different to the rest of the screen.
Oppo has claimed that users shouldn’t really notice any visual differences between the display and the under-screen camera portion of the screen.
A prototype image released by the company can be seen below, showing off the seamless display on an e-reader app, where the white background and sharp black text would be noticeably warped if the under-display camera impacted the screen.
Oppo was also gracious enough to provide an example of the camera itself. While one example doesn’t show us everything, it looks considerably more impressive than one of the only other options for under-display cameras available, which belongs to ZTE’s Axon 20 5G.
Considering the technology is still very new and very imperfect, this is a promising example of an under-display camera, which so far has mostly been a concept, as shown in the still unreleased Vivo Apex 2020. You can check out the Oppo under-display camera photo below.
Oppo has been looking into this tech for a while, showing off the world’s first demo of an under-display camera at MWC Shanghai in 2019, however, this is the first time the tech will be included in the company’s commercialised devices.
The reasoning behind the lack of under-display cameras in smartphones is simply because it’s not easy to hide a secondary transparent screen, and it’s also difficult to keep the image quality from suffering.
To put it simply, you can’t put something, even a transparent piece of glass, over a camera and not have it affect the camera, but you also need to make sure the material over the camera can let enough light in to take a good photo.
It hasn’t been done yet, to much success anyway, but we’re very excited about Oppo’s new breakthrough, though the company has not given many hints about when this technology will make its way onto the phones.
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