Xiaomi has announced the third generation of under-display camera tech. The company said that the technology will be mass-produced in early 2021.
That probably means that we’ll see phones equipped with such tech in H1 2021. We’ve been waiting for such technology to make it to consumer devices for quite some time now, and it’ll happen soon, it seems.
Xiaomi CEO released a video showing off third-gen under-display camera tech
Lei Jun, the company’s CEO, released a video (shared by Ice Universe) that shows a special version of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra equipped with such tech. This is just a prototype device, this is not the first time Xiaomi showed off something like that.
Big news: Xiaomi announced the third generation of under-screen camera technology. The video below is a special under-screen camera version of the Mi 10 Ultra, which has reached a usable level, which is very exciting. This technology will be mass-produced in early 2021. pic.twitter.com/m8bujC2KCs
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) August 28, 2020
The company demoed a prototype equipped with such tech last year, the same as OPPO. The technology wasn’t right back then, and therefore Xiaomi decided not to mass-produce it.
Well, that will change in early 2021, as it seems Xiaomi reached the desired level in its development. The tech works as you’d expect it to.
The front-facing camera is hidden away behind the display. When you activate the front-facing camera, those pixels in front of it will shut down, so that you could take an image using it.
Lei Jun did not really go into detail as to what exactly happens, but we’re sure there’s more to it than that. Xiaomi is expected to detail this technology further in the coming weeks / months.
OPPO has been developing such technology as well
OPPO has been working on such technology as well. The company demoed the tech on several occasions thus far, and it is also expected to start releasing phones with under-display cameras soon. Probably also in 2021.
Visionox announced, a while back, that its under-display tech is ready for mass production as well. So, it seems like the technology is finally there, and that could mean the end of notches and display holes.
Don’t expect notches and display holes to disappear overnight, though. Some companies, such as Apple, use fancy facial scanning tech which cannot be placed under the display.
So, we’ll still be seeing notches and display holes, of course. Under-display camera tech should be able to push those out, and be shipped on the vast majority of mid-range and high-end devices in the future, though.
It is worth noting that the world’s first smartphone with an under-display camera will be the ZTE Axon 20 5G. That handset is expected to launch on September 1.