A closer look at OPPO’s Under-Screen Camera technology

OPPO recently introduced at MWC19 in Shanghai, China, their new Under-Screen Camera technology which puts the smartphone’s front camera under the display. Such camera design will allow manufacturers to produce devices with full-screen displays without the notch or pop-up mechanism.

As mentioned in our previous article, it’s a new technology but provides a huge advantage when it comes to smartphone design, just like the benefits brought by the under-screen fingerprint scanners. With this new camera tech, future phones will no longer need notches or pop-up cameras.

In the case of OPPO’s Under-Screen Camera technology, the camera is located just below the phone’s earpiece but under the screen. To allow light to pass through, they placed a highly-transparent material with redesigned pixel structure on top of the camera’s location. You won’t notice it when viewed normally or from a distance but you’ll see it up-close which looks like a tiny screen with low resolution.

Do note though that the technology is far from perfect as it still has lots to improve on in terms of quality and performance. OPPO mentioned though that they will use three algorithms to improve image quality (adjustments with White Balance, HDR, and Haze Removal).

The device used is also a demo phone that uses custom software so we can expect the quality will be significantly better before it becomes implemented in commercial devices. Although this is solid proof that the technology works and we’re looking forward to seeing it in future OPPO smartphones.