Today, OPPO unveiled their latest development in smartphone display technology. While the upgrade is centred around their third generation of under-screen camera, the tech incorporates several other exciting advancements. Decreases to visible gaps between pixels. Enhanced pixel control with 1-to-1 circuitry. And vastly reduced power consumption are just a few of the promises that OPPO have made. Perhaps unfairly, all of these are secondary to the obvious ‘wow’ of a truly hidden selfie-snapper.
Notch-Free Display
The fact that OPPO have placed several key features and improvements to display technology under the true USC banner shows how important the milestone is the smartphone industry.
Ever since the first smartphone selfie camera, we have been trying to find ways to reduce its impact on the display. Hiding a tiny lens in a bezel, hatcheting out chunks of screen and sticking a significant dot off on a corner were a decent solutions in their day.
However, in recent years, advances in AI in tandem with breakthroughs in materials science have brought under-screen cameras to tech shows. The odd one has even hit the market. But these have all just been steps on the road to perfecting the tech.
Previous efforts form OPPO themselves, Samsung and Xiaomi all came with compromises that affected the quality of the screen or the capture. Often both. The reduction of light passing through the display to the sensor is a common, deleterious issue.
The other issue of how noticeable the selfie cam is under the display varies. Some are obvious but some need a careful eye or the right angle to expose the would-be lens. It seems like the hurdle of a good selfie through AMOLED seems to have been the hardest one to overcome.
No Compromise USC
Samsung’s latest effort in this department seems to offer a perfect display but it’s a laptop. The screen is much bigger than a smartphone for roughly the same resolution so gaps between sub-pixels can be larger.
Perhaps more importantly, a webcam is not at the same level of capture as a flagship selfie-cam. A webcam is generally of much lower resolution, often with fixed focus. They usually lack HDR, ultra-wide modes and beautification bells and whistles.
The race to announce and demo the tech in a finished state is now seemingly over over. OPPO can add this notable trophy to their previous advancements in display technology, like the billion colour pipeline. While the race to bring it to market continues, OPPO claim they have overcome the challenges.
They said “[…] the new under-screen camera discreetly places the front-facing camera under the smartphone display while retaining the fluidity of the screen. Offering the perfect balance between consistent screen quality and camera image quality, it is an under-screen camera solution without compromise.”
While a date for the tech to reach the market hasn’t been set, OPPO feel they genuinely cracked it.
All-Encompassing
Another promising aspect of the announcement are the all-encompassing improvements mixed in with the advancements necessary to implement a flawless USC. Advancements include (from OPPO):
- Innovative pixel geometry: the new USC shrinks the size of each pixel without decreasing the number of pixels, ensuring a 400-PPI high-quality display.
- Transparent wiring and new design: By implementing a transparent wiring material which reduces the width of the wiring by 50%, OPPO has created a refined display for a smoother visual experience.
- Improved control of screen accuracy, colour and brightness: OPPO’s proprietary screen technology enables each pixel circuit to drive only 1 pixel. Combined with OPPO’s precise algorithmic compensation technology, this allows the screen brightness to be precisely controlled with a deviation of about 2%. This means smaller fonts can be displayed accurately with better depiction of textural details and colours, resulting in a more consistent and immersive experience.
- Improved reliability and lifespan: The “1-to-1” pixel circuit and dedicated optimisation algorithm deliver display compensation in the USC area of the screen, improving the display’s lifespan by up to 50%.
Leadership in Standardisation
According to OPPO, their third go at the under-screen camera relies heavily on work done by OPPO’s Research Institutes. Advancements in AI imaging “[…] including diffraction reduction, HDR and AWB, helping to alleviate issues such as blur and image glare.” OPPO claim to have trained their AI diffraction reduction model using tens of thousands of images. Using this stockpile to control problems caused by light diffraction and allowing users to capture “clearer, more natural images”.
OPPO has invested heavily into R&D in under-screen camera technology in the last few years. The company is already on its third generation of USC solution since 2018. As they were keen to point out, they applied for over 200 related patents in the process.
Last year, OPPO submitted its proposed standards for USC technology to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Included in the proposal were recommendations for seven key technical metrics. Among them display transmittance, reflectance, uniformity, Gamma correction, colour shift and brightness decay.
Are you excited for this selfie Holy Grail? Or will you only be impressed when it’s finally in impartial hands? Were you happy with notches, punchholes and pop-up solutions?
