ZTE launches the world's first phone with an under-display camera
ZTE's finally done it. The company's new smartphone is just a slab of glass on the front, with the selfie camera neatly hidden under the phone's display.
Teased a few weeks ago and announced on Tuesday, the ZTE Axon 20 5G has a 6.92-inch OLED display with an FHD+ resolution and an under-display 32-megapixel camera, the first of its kind on a widely available smartphone.
ZTE says it used five different technologies to make the under-display camera possible. This includes using a high transparency material for the display, thereby increasing the amount of light that reaches the camera. A dual-control chip and integrated driver circuits enable color sync between the selfie camera and the display, and a unique driver circuit layout design avoids possible interference.
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ZTE says it also used a special pixel matrix, optimizing pixels and improving the display's consistency. Finally, the company developed a selfie algorithm that should optimize the front camera's display depending on the lighting conditions. Hopefully, all of this will allow users to take selfies without even noticing the camera is hidden behind the display.
ZTE won't be the only company with a phone like this. Last week, Xiaomi unveiled its third-generation under-display camera tech, which will start showing up in phones next year.
The rest of the Axon 20 5G's specs aren't half bad, either. The phone is powered by increasingly ubiquitous Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, and it has 6/8GB of RAM, 128/256GB of storage, a 4,220mAh battery, and 5G support.
On the back, you'll find a quad-camera setup, with a 64-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel wide sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro shooter.
ZTE Axon 20 5G is available in China now, with the pricing starting at RMB2,198 ($322), which doesn't sound too high for a phone with this amount of new tech inside. There's no word on an international launch or pricing.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
