Xiaomi 3rd Generation Under-screen Camera Review
This morning, Xiaomi unveiled its third-generation under-screen camera technology, which is claimed to be the perfect solution for under-screen cameras and will be mass-produced next year.
It is the first time Xiaomi has announced a prototype of its third-generation under-screen camera technology, and it’s only a prototype, not an actual production model. At the same time, some users got an early taste of the ‘real thing’ – it’s based on the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra remodeled device, surprisingly users didn’t even realize it was an under-screen camera model at all when users first got the machine until Xiaomi’s staff reminded them that this machine is a prototype of an off-screen camera product.
It’s already hard to tell the difference between the under-screen camera area and the rest of the area until they changed the background of the display in this area to a brighter/solid color to get a hint of an imperceptible screen that’s not quite even to the naked eye, and the camera is having trouble picking it up. And the Xiaomi staff says this issue will be addressed in the production model.
The prototype on display has not yet made full UI adaptations as shown in below figures and the comparison with the official release version of the Mi 10 Ultra, the font display of the notification bar has not yet moved to the top, still leaving the area of the camera. If the notification bar font moved over, it would be even harder to see this slight difference.
Against a background of richly textured like below pictures, the naked eye can barely tell the difference in the off-screen camera area at all. On a dark background (or a solid black background), you won’t be able to see the camera (the current perforated screen is a camera lens group that is visible).
As a technology that emphasizes the “mass production” of the camera; the samples shown so far already have a complete form and details, and this “complete” and “evolution” is even more obvious when compared with the previous prototype of the second-generation technology, such as the comparison between below pictures.
According to Xiaomi’s official technical data, the first-generation under-screen camera changed the upper and lower cathode anodes of OLED to transparent material to improve light transmittance, the display effect and light transmittance of the first-generation product was obviously insufficient, and this generation has only been pre-developed in the lab but not shown to the public; the second-generation technology adopts the “sacrifice of pixels in the under-screen camera area” approach, the pixels in the under-screen camera area is only 1/4 of the normal display area, which is insufficient.
For example, in above prototype comparison figures, the comparison between the Mi 9 Pro, which is based on the 2nd generation under-screen camera technology, and the Mi 10 Ultra, which is based on the 3rd generation under-screen camera technology, clearly shows that the under-screen camera area has become coarse and ‘big fruit’ (the under-screen front camera technology demonstrated by several brands last year is also based on the Mi 10 Ultra generation of technology principle), also failed to achieve the quality required for good mass production.
Xiaomi’s claimed ‘third-generation under-screen camera technology’ retains the full-pixel display, and by making the pixel gap transparent and redesigning the pixel driver circuitry, it achieves a translucent rendering effect (which is the display principle of transparent TVs). The faint unevenness of the display against a solid background that is still present in the prototype should also be due to this transparent pixel gap, and subsequent Xiaomi will continue to optimize this area until the official launch of the production model next year.
And as for the effect of the selfie has been and now the regular model of the selfie effect is almost the same, the prototype of the beauty skinny face and so on (but the processing time is longer, should be some algorithm optimization, this part of the follow-up is also being improved, Xiaomi’s staff to answer when the production machine and the ordinary perforated / drop model selfie experience is the same.
After exploring various punch-hole, shaped screens, and elevated cameras, we finally have the ‘real’ full form on the phone screen. The latest news shows that Xiaomi is likely to release a new under-screen front camera in Q1 next year, it is not clear whether it belongs to the MIX or digital series.
