Xiaomi phone with under-display camera tech coming in 2021 - Android

The fourth stage to this ambition will be the final one, as smartphone brands are rapidly making progress in under-display camera technology. This will completely hide the front-facing camera beneath the display.

We’ve seen both OPPO and Xiaomi showcased their initial prototypes back in June of 2019. Vivo also has their own for the APEX 2020 concept phone last February of this year.

Out of all these concepts and prototypes, we’re yet to see a market-ready solution — but not until now. It’s been recently revealed that the upcoming ZTE Axon 20 5G, launching on September 1, will be the first smartphone to be available for purchase that has a UD selfie camera.

Now, Xiaomi is also saying that their 3rd-generation under-display camera technology is also ready for mass production. They demoed how the technology works on a video posted on their YouTube channel.

For those who are wondering, the first-gen was a lab-only prototype. The second one did work, but the quality isn’t passable for mass production. Now, they hit jackpot with the third iteration. Third’s time the charm, as they say.

So, how does a UD camera works? As per Xiaomi, the circular camera area on the display panel has the same pixel density as the rest of the screen, so it can perfectly hide the camera beneath it. The camera then peeks through the gaps on the display’s sub-pixels.

Xiaomi claims uniform brightness, contrast, and color accuracy for the entire screen.