Oppo wants to eliminate the smartphone notch with an under-screen camera

Over the last two years, we have seen most of the smartphone market shift over to ‘all screen' designs with slimmer bezels than ever before. This resulted in the ‘notch' trend at first, where part of the display is covered to maintain room for a front facing camera, but companies are finding creative ways to eliminate this issue and Oppo may have the best solution yet.

This week, Oppo began demonstrating its new under-screen camera design. So instead of having a notch on the front of your phone, or a pop-up camera mechanism, the selfie-taker just sits under your display. This is achieved by using transparent materials and customised displays with a redesigned pixel structure, which allows light to get through the display to the camera sensor.

OPPO's brand new solution for full-screen display – Under-screen Camera (USC) has just been unveiled here at #MWC19 Shanghai! #MoreThanTheSeen pic.twitter.com/k5qEQ3QNta

— OPPO India (@oppomobileindia) June 26, 2019

According to Oppo, the area of the display where the camera resides will still be compatible with touchscreen inputs and won't compromise display quality. Although in direct bright light, you are likely going to be able to see the camera hiding underneath even with the display switched on.

While this is great for those who want as much usable screen in their hand as possible, front-camera picture quality will take a hit. Colour cast, haze, glare etc are all issues that will need to be addressed when bringing this technology to market.

KitGuru Says: Oppo will be releasing its first phone with an under-screen camera later this year, so it won't be long before we can see it in action properly. What do you guys think of this idea? 

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