It seems that subsequent trends in smartphones will be under-display (or under-screen) cameras or UDCs, a minimum of as many manufacturers are concerned. Of course, ZTE fired the opening salvo last year with the Axon 20 5G and fired another round with the Axon 30 5G the previous month. Samsung is also rumored to jump their bandwagon with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and OPPO already revealed its third-gen under-screen camera (USC) prototype. Xiaomi, however, might beat them to the punch with the Mi Mix 4 next week.
Xiaomi’s Mi Mix has always employed innovative or unorthodox designs to supply a full-screen smartphone display. The Mi Mix started that tradition by minimizing the camera’s area to a really thin chin, while the newest Mi Mix 3 utilized a pop-up camera instead. This year, Xiaomi is seemingly going the additional mile by finally bringing its own UDC implementation to the marketplace for the primary time.
Just like OPPO, Xiaomi has already reached its third iteration of this under-display camera technology. And like OPPO, it hasn’t yet utilized that for any commercial smartphone if this latest leak from Digital Chat Station on Weibo is true, which will finally change with the Mi Mix 4.
A brief video shows the display board that Xiaomi will allegedly use for the upcoming smartphone. It’s flexible, which in itself is already impressive, allowing Xiaomi to implement a curved-edge design for the Mi Mix 4. However, the more significant revelation is that the under-display camera is almost unnoticeable until the screen is turned off.
It does seem that this year’s generation of UDCs has finally solved the pixel density problem seen on the ZTE Axon 20 5G last year. However, it remains to be seen if they also need sufficiently addressed the image quality issue inherent during this quiet technology. Supported Xiaomi‘s teaser, the Mi Mix 4 will debut in China on August 10, each day before Samsung’s Unpacked 2021.
