OPPO presents its invisible camera under the screen | SFR NEWS

Definitely, the invisible camera placed under the screen, or under-screen camera, seems to be the center of all attention lately. While we thought that Xiaomi was going to present its own just before Samsung, it was finally OPPO that took everyone by surprise in an unexpected press release...

The selfie camera will therefore only remain in fashion for a few years. Appeared on smartphones to allow people to take pictures and show off on social networks, it seems to be about to disappear. Finally, no, it will always be there, but it will be well hidden. The objective for all manufacturers is now the same: to hide it under the screen, so that it no longer takes up space. While allowing it to be even more efficient...

Before becoming a real phenomenon, in parallel with the advent of social networks like Instagram, the selfie was above all very popular in Japanese culture, thanks in particular to photo sticker booths called purikura. After a veritable explosion in the 1990s, the selfie finally arrived on mobile phones, with a camera placed on the front of the Sony Ericsson Z1010 in 2003. But it's often (not to say always) an iPhone that ended up popularizing this new tool. Released in 2010, the iPhone 4 also featured a selfie camera, and that was the start of this new trend on all smartphones. Now an essential tool, the selfie camera will therefore very soon know its new evolution, disappearing under the screen, as OPPO has just presented it.

OPPO overtakes Samsung and Xiaomi

Last week, the Chinese brand ZTE already presented a smarpthone with a front camera hidden under the screen, the Axon 30, but its release remained very confidential. The event was to come mainly from Samsung with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the new very high-end folding screen smartphone from the Korean giant, which will be presented at the Galaxy Unpacked conference on August 11. But Xiaomi took the lead, and announced by surprise the presentation of its Mi MIX 4, which should also present an under-screen camera the day before, on August 10. This announcement barely made, OPPO replied, presenting in a press release its own invisible camera placed under the screen. This is what is called taming the pawn...

Pixel reduction for optimal display

However, there is a major difference between the under-screen cameras of Samsung and Xiaomi: that of OPPO is presented independently, without equipping a smartphone. Thus, the Chinese brand presents a camera that "represents the perfect balance between screen quality and camera quality". If no video supports these statements, OPPO claims to have managed to discreetly place a front camera under the screen, without sacrificing its uniformity. Indeed, since the development of under-screen cameras, one of the main problems encountered is that of a poorer image quality perceived by the camera, due to the presence of the screen above it. The Chinese firm has therefore developed several innovations In terms of cabling, OPPO announces that it has found a solution to make it transparent while reducing the width by 50%. But the main solution found consists above all in reducing the size of the pixels without reducing their number, in order to guarantee a display of 400 ppi (pixel per inch = pixel per inch, unit of measurement for the resolution) on the whole of the screen. This is what the display of pixels looks like in the sub-screen camera area:

Where it gets even more technical is when OPPO states that its solution is "a proprietary display technology where each pixel circuit drives only one pixel". To popularize, while pixels are usually driven in pairs, which can lead to a loss of brightness, here they are driven individually. No doubt aware that these explanations may seem quite abstract for the uninitiated, the brand has also published what is most important for a front camera, even under the screen: selfies. And indeed, on the leaked shots, it is impossible to tell the difference between a standard camera and this one, hidden under the screen:

To go further and show the progress made, OPPO has also attached 2 selfies, the one on the left having been taken with an old version of the under-display camera, where the brightness problems are obvious, and the other taken with the last generation , to the right :

OPPO therefore seems to have made particular progress on its under-screen camera, but has not yet announced any smartphone that would be equipped with it. Could all of the brand's next models be affected, or only a future premium model? After all, it is on a very particular model that Xiaomi (with the Mi MIX 4) and Samsung (on the Galaxy Z Fold 3) will present their under-screen camera. The answer in a few weeks, no doubt. Maybe for the Reno6 series?

While waiting to discover OPPO's under-screen camera, find the brand's best smartphones on the SFR online store.

Source: OPPO, Courier International

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