Samsung working on under display selfie camera

Although some Android smartphone makers fell over themselves to copy the display notch on the iPhone X when it popularized the controversial “feature,” a race quickly evolved to eliminate the notch altogether. The first to do so was Vivo, with its innovative NEX smartphone that integrated a mechanical pop-up selfie camera into the top of the device. Others like Oppo have tried a sliding mechanism on its Find X while Vivo also tried sticking a secondary display on the rear of its Vivo NEX Dual smartphone to bypass a front-facing camera altogether.

Samsung, however, seems to think that these approaches aren’t technologically sophisticated enough. Speaking to Korean media the vice president of Samsung’s display group, Yang Byung-duk has revealed the company is actively developing a selfie camera that is embedded beneath the display itself. We’ve heard rumors of this sort of technology before, but this is the first time an official from a major company has revealed that it is actively pursuing the technology. Some rumors have indicated Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone sequel could feature such a breakthrough.

The aim is to create the “perfect full screen” smartphone that doesn’t need to lean on potentially breakable moving parts to like pop-up or slider mechanisms to achieve an all screen device. Apparently, the camera hole isn’t visible to the naked eye and the display above the lens becomes transparent enough that the photos that it takes are unaffected. Unfortunately, no timeline has been provided for when we might see a smartphone with the new camera/display tech, however, if Samsung is talking about it publicly it can’t be too far away.