Under-display camera: Oppo is killing the notch

Dominik Bärlocher

5.8.2021

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Oppo presents something that isn’t there. Oppo’s next-generation under-display camera phone has got rid of the notch and reveals an invisible camera that is tucked away under the display.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo presented a new technology that manages to hide a camera behind a fully functional OLED display. In regular mode, the camera is invisible. No notch, no hole punch, no nothing. Just a standard display we’re all familiar with.

This breakthrough took years of research. Oppo made the first pieces of information on the subject available to the public back in 2019. The problem at the time? Although it was possible to tuck away a camera behind a display, the technology was not yet mature.

With the new display by BOE covering the camera, Oppo can maintain a pixel density of 400 ppi. To date, the area above the camera had to make do with a lower pixel density. This led to nasty distortion effects in use.

But that’s all history now and Oppo is presenting a solution that looks market-ready at first glance.

However, Oppo isn’t the first manufacturer to feature this type of under-display camera. Last year, ZTE already hid a camera under the display of its ZTE Axon 20 5G. However, besides the average picture quality, the camera was still visible. Admittedly, the Axon is about half the price of a flagship. You can’t expect a bleeding edge display and a top camera.

Smartphones

ZTE Axon 20

128 GB, Black, 6.92", Dual SIM, 64 Mpx, 4G

But if you still have a notch on Android, here’s a guide (in German) on how to rid yourself of annoying icons.

No details have been announced yet regarding a launch in Switzerland. It’s also still unclear if the next-generation under-display camera phone will be launched at all. It could just be a prototype that is only meant to present the technology of the camera underneath the display.

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.