Smartphone design has greatly improved from what it looked like in the past ten years. The Xiaomi Mi 1, which was released a decade ago, would struggle in today’s market, and that shows the level of improvement. The bezels have got thinner, selfie camera now mounts on a motorized pop-up or integrated into a punch hole. And it’s about to get more interesting with the latest Xiaomi under-screen camera technology.
According to Xiaomi, this is the third generation under-screen camera technology, albeit the first and generation didn’t see mass production. However, the company has confirmed that it will start mass production of devices with the under-screen camera technology from next year. Of course, expect to see this feature on premium smartphones, just like the prototype video posted by the company uses the recently released Mi 10 Ultra.
To successfully avoid the teardrop and punch holes, thereby making true-view display possible without a motorized pop-up, Xiaomi has finally disguised the selfie camera under the display. According to the company, the third generation under-screen camera technology allows “the screen to pass light through the gap area of sub-pixels, allowing every single pixel to retain a complete RGB subpixel layout without sacrificing pixel density.”
Xiaomi has doubled the number of pixels to achieve the same density of pixels as the rest of the display area. Hence, the screen can perfectly mask the selfie camera sitting under. The performance of the camera matches that of ordinary front cameras, thanks to the special circuit design that was adopted to hide more components under the RGB sub-pixel, which “further increase light transmittance of the under-screen camera area.”
image source: XiaomiUnfortunately, we might see the first device with an under-screen camera debut in the coming weeks. According to a report, ZTE Axon 20 5G will be debuting with the tech on September 1st, to be exact. They’re going to debut the tech commercially before Xiaomi, but it’ll be good to see the real-lifeperformance.
