Here's how Samsung could make the front camera disappear

Today, almost all smartphone manufacturers have adopted the borderless style by offering devices with almost no borders around the screen. But since there are no more borders on smartphones, these manufacturers had to find new locations for the front camera, and other sensors.

For the iPhone, the front camera and the Face ID sensor are placed on a notch. And for many Android models, especially in the high-end segment, this front camera is placed on a pierced bubble in the screen.

Next step: hide the front camera

In any case, the solution is not perfect, since the ideal would be to have a screen on which there is neither bubble nor notch. This is why many manufacturers have studied the possibility of hiding this front camera under the screen.

And the first model using this type of technology has already been released. This is the ZTE Axon 20 5G. For its part, Xiaomi intends to start mass-producing smartphones with a front camera hidden under the screen from 2021.

But if these technologies make it possible to bury the notch or the bubble on the screen, they also have a disadvantage. Indeed, since the front camera is placed under the screen (under a part that lets light through when you want to take a selfie), the quality of the photos can be affected.

Samsung: a different solution?

Samsung may have found a way to eliminate this inconvenience, by using a small sliding screen inside the smartphone that can hide the front camera, or release it when needed.

Recently, the LetsGoDigital.org site relayed a Samsung patent that would describe this mechanism. As you can see in the animation below, a sliding system can move a small screen that hides the front camera when it's not in use.

An animation posted by LetsGoDigital.org, created from Samsung documents, to explain the front camera hiding mechanism.

This system could allow Samsung to offer devices without notches or visible bubbles, but on which the quality of the selfies is not altered.

But of course, for the moment, it is only a patent. And there is no guarantee that Samsung will use this on any of its future models. Indeed, companies of this size have a significant number of intellectual properties that are not used.

Either way, hidden front cameras might be the next trend in the smartphone market. In addition to ZTE and Xiaomi, the Oppo brand is also looking for a way to say goodbye to the notch and the pierced bubble on the screen.