The world’s first under-display selfie camera isn’t very good

In the whole world, everything will fit under the surface of smartphone displays. This is the principle behind the phone design of the last few years, at least, since the iPhone X escalated the bezel wars with its clear entry. From in-display fingerprint sensors to pop-up selfie cameras, we’ve seen phone manufacturers take a creative approach to getting the maximum screen-to-body ratio possible.

The latest advance in bezel wars is the ZTE Exxon 20 5G, which goes on sale today and is the world’s first phone to integrate a front-facing camera at the bottom of the screen. While in-display fingerprint sensors are now commonplace, it has become even more difficult for selfie cameras to do so. Companies like Oppo and Xiaomi have been showing demos for years, but ZTE has knocked them to the punch with the first commercial device.

In theory, the benefits are obvious. You get an intact display that doesn’t need to be an excellent or hole-punch part, and you don’t have to build motor machinery for a pop-up camera module. Again, if the world were perfect, either side of me would magically exist under display only without compromising image quality.

Readers, the world is not perfect.

Before we talk about the camera, we should talk about the display that is on top. I doubt it has anything to do with my own technology .G, but the fact is that the Xperia 20 5G is one of the biggest smartphones I’ve ever seen. The 90 Hz OLED panel has a huge 6.92 inch diagonal, which means its 1080p resolution is a little less sharp than you would find on other phones. It’s not a problem with regular use, though, and the screen usually looks pretty good in addition to some rough-f-angle color shifting.

What doesn’t look good is a relatively wide “chin” bezel. Although, it was supposed to be extraordinarily thin a few years ago, it really stands out on the Exxon 20 5G considering the supposed nature of the device. I’ve seen phones that have managed to integrate traditional selfie cameras into a thinner bezel than this, which weakens the issue of placing them under the type of display.

The realization only intensifies when you go through the setup process of Xenon 20 5G, which shows me in the worst possible circumstances. The under-display integration, in light backgrounds, like the ones you want to see on the settings screen, is extremely noticeable. The screen has a square patch that shows a clear underlying effect, making it appear at a much lower resolution than the rest of the panel. I will just say that I think it feels even worse than an excellent one.

In more general use, it is difficult to notice. If you’re looking at photos or full-color wallpapers, you’ll see a lower-resolution area if you look closely, but it’s not so distracting. And other companies that have shipped Android phones with notches or hole-punches, such as ZTE’s default software, use a black background at the top of the screen where status and notification icons are displayed, making the camera closer-invisible. But really, if you need to resort to the same old notch-hiding techniques to disguise your under-display camera, what are we doing here?

The images above show how visible the on marrow is on a colored, white and black background.

The next obvious question, of course, is how K actually does mero. The news here isn’t great either. I don’t want to underestimate the technical achievement of getting a halfway functional camera under any OLED screen – it includes new types of transparent objects, pixel filters and demos icing horn algorithms to make sense of the light that hits the 32-megapixel sensor. . But the result, unfortunately, is a bad selfie camera.

In good light, the xxon 20 5G’s selfie camera takes smoky, soft photos with faint colors and blown highlights. Compare that to the following Pixel 5:

Just to clarify, that on Xen 20 was taken with 5G photo portrait mode and smoothing filters were turned on Off.

The disparity is with a fair amount of noise and delayed detail in small amounts. To make it more consistent I’ve turned off the Pixel 5’s night mode here, and it’s still crushing the Exxon 20 5G.

This under-display selfie camera is just functional and is generous. It can capture images through the screen, yes, which is really a small miracle. But you probably don’t want anyone else to see it.

This isn’t the most complimentary compliment I can give a phone with a supposed breakthrough selfie camera, but the ZTE Exxon 20 5G is really a better proposition if you don’t care about selfies or video chats. It is a pretty reliable phone in the otherwise 9444, although ZTE says it will no longer be available in the US or Canada, despite being priced at ડ 1 million. (It is 9449 in the EU and 9419 in the UK.)

While the xxon 20 5G has a huge step footprint, it’s still less than 8mm thick, and the ZTE includes a reasonably 4,220mAh battery inside. The processor is Snapdragon 765G, which comes with an integrated 5G modem, similar to the Pixel 5 and LG Velvet, and should have 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Other specs include an ical optical in-display fingerprint sensor that works fine, a 30W fast charging on USB-C, and a headphone jack. There’s a 64-megapixel main camera and a 16-megapixel UltraWide, with a 2-megapixel macro and depth depth sensors that you might ignore. The main areas where ZTE has cut corners are its medium heptics system and an ineffective downward-firing speaker.

The fact that ZTE finally got this type of phone in the market is a significant milestone, but I’m not sure who this device really is for. Under-display selfies are often worse and more distracting than an excellent one, and image quality is clearly compromised. It’s ironic that a phone can attract more of an audience that doesn’t actively care about its key selling points, but that’s what we’re up to with the Axon 20 5G.