Oppo, Xiaomi show phones with selfie cameras hidden under the display

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has developed a selfie camera that's hidden under a smartphone's display.

The company showed off the tech in a short video on Twitter.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The 15-second video shows a partially hidden phone prototype that has no visible notch -- in fact, the selfie camera isn't visible at all. And yet, the selfie camera appears to function as you'd expect. Near the end of the video, someone places a finger over the camera, blocking its view, as if to prove that the camera is really there.

The under-the-display selfie camera is another step towards a smartphone that's basically all screen on the front. Technologies like in-display fingerprint sensors and vibrating displays that double as speakers made it possible for smartphones to have huge screens, leaving the selfie camera as the last major obstacle in completely eliminating the notches and bezels that most major phones have these days. But it's hard to tell whether it's possible to make this type of camera as good as regular selfie cameras.

Oppo's VP Brian Shen shared a few more details about the technology on Chinese social media site Weibo. He said that at this stage, the optical quality of the under-the-display camera will have "some loss", but he pointed out that every new technology takes time to perfect.

UPDATE: June 3, 2019, 9:33 a.m. CEST Shortly after Oppo's video, Xiaomi responded with a video of its own, showcasing similar technology. The video shows two similar phones, one with a clearly visible selfie camera notch, the other without it -- and then the phone without the notch is used to take a selfie. It looks like we'll be seeing phones like these pretty soon.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.