The First Phone With an Invisible Selfie Cam Could Be Announced In September

The First Phone With an Invisible Selfie Cam Could Be Announced In September

Smartphone makers have been trying to kill the notch and figure out a way to put selfie cameras underneath phones screen for years, and now it seems that an unlikely candidate is finally ready to reveal the world’s first phone featuring this tech on September 1.

However, the first company to make this tech a reality isn’t Samsung, Huawei, or even LG, it’s ZTE, which has suffered from a number of business challenges over the past two years after being officially designated as a security risk by the FCC, being investigated for bribery, and being forced to dump its entire C-suite to appease U.S. regulators after violating trade sanctions on Iran.

However, on the new ZTE Axon 20 5G, which is scheduled to make its official debut on September 1 in China, ZTE claims it will have created the “world’s first mass-produced 5G smartphone featuring an under-display camera.”

The reason why an under-screen camera is such a big deal is because by eliminating the need for a visible selfie camera like the punch-hole or notched cameras found on pretty much every mainstream phone today, smartphone makers could provide users with a truly uninterrupted main display without the need to resort to more extreme workarounds like motorised pop-up cams or 360-degree rotating cams.

Historically, the biggest hurdle when it comes to creating an under-screen camera is that the pixels in a phone’s screen tend to cause distortion and reduce the amount of light that can reach the under-screen camera’s sensor, thereby significantly impacting the camera’s image quality.

Meanwhile, aside from its vaunted under-screen camera, according to recent leaks detailed by MySmartPrice.com, the Axon 20 is expected to come with solid but not super-premium components including a Snapdragon 765G processor, up to 12GB of RAM (6GB base), up to 256GB of storage, and a 4,100 mAh battery. The Axon 20 is also supposed to feature a large 6.92-inch OLED display (but with only a full HD+ resolution), and four cameras in back including a 64-MP main sensor, a 8-MP ultra-wide sensor, and dual 2-MP sensors, which will probably used for depth-sensing and macro photos.

So while ZTE’s may be talking a big game, the real proof of success will come when we can compare the kind of photos the Axon 20’s under-screen camera can produce compared to more traditional notch or punch-hole cams. Check back on September 1 when we’ll hopefully have more info.