Shortly after Samsung introduced the Galaxy S8 with a trimmed down bezels and edge-to-edge display, it instantly became a trend which other smartphone makers too followed suite.
During the course of this redesign, fingerprint scanners were taken off phones back and placed underneath the screen. The same too happened to the speaker. However, phone manufactures wanted to get a truly bezel-less display but couldn't.
Apple trimmed down the thick bezels on the iPhones, but there a was thick ugly notch above the screen. Samsung too couldn't completely eradicate the bezel as they had to embrace a cutout hole for the selfie camera on its Flagship phones, to get something close to a bezel-less display.
Other phone manufactures used all kinds of notches (water drop, dew drop, etc.) others used pop-up camera for a bezel-less display. Some even went far to completely eradicate the front camera, but placed a small display at the back of the device to be used used for selfie, Face unlock and other functionality that requires the front facing camera.
The main quest here is to hide the front facing camera underneath the phones display to get a truly bezel-less display. There several patents out there for this technology have existed for some time now but none have been able to get it right until now.
Oppo and Xiaomi have showcased a working prototype of an under-display selfie camera.
From the video above, no notch can be seen, no pop -up camera, no punch hole or cutout display but instead a front-facing camera that is embedded underneath the screen. For now, details on the implementation isn't available, we know that this can be achieved using OLED technology.For those seeking the perfect, notchless smartphone screen experience – prepare to be amazed. 📲— OPPO (@oppo) June 3, 2019
You are taking a very first look at our under-display selfie camera technology. RT! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FrqB6RiJaY
OLED technology don't need back light, they emit light on their own and are transparent. In fact, the under display fingerprint sensors you see on flagship devices are actually under display cameras with optical in-display fingerprint sensors.Do you want a sneak peek at the future? Here you go...introducing you to Under-Display Camera technology!#Xiaomi #InnovationForEveryone pic.twitter.com/d2HL6FHkh1— Xiaomi #5GIsHere (@Xiaomi) June 3, 2019
However, getting a selfie camera capable of taking resolution images of complicated scenes is difficult..sorry, was difficult until now.
For now, there is now word on when this technology will be implemented in smartphones, though, we we expect to see a release with an under display camera before or by the end of this year.