Under-screen cameras, yay or nay?

Guru hasn’t yet put his own grubby paws on the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 – Samsung pointedly did not invite your hamfisted friend to the launch event due to his reputation for a) breaking things and b) powerful odours – so he cannot directly comment on a personal view of its under-screen selfie snapper. But he has seen things, and as it is probably the most prominent hidden eye on the market he should at least suck a little air through his teeth and tell you that Samsung’s foldy-boy is not quite there in terms of camera cover-up.

Thing is, to make such a thing work you need a special kind of engineering. Manufacturers must, at this point, essentially create a teensy second screen which plops on top of the selfie camera, filling in the gaps most of the time and turning off when it needs to. If this mini-panel blends in as well as the Fold 3’s doesn’t, the effect is perhaps even more jarring than just leaving a bullethole gap.

Some manufacturers have managed to make it work, however. ZTE’s brand new Axon 30 5G, a phone that follows up ZTE’s already quite successful first under-screen attempt, seems to have cracked the code, with a high-density overscreen which (while still noticeable if you really look for it) does look damn slick. Admittedly that’s the Axon 30 5G’s primary gimmick, and GaGu wouldn’t buy one for its phone capabilities. Like folding screens, though, Guru suspects that under-screen cameras will not truly become vogue until Apple claims to have invented them; the folks from Cupertino don’t seem to push a tech to market until it’s fully battle-tested, and the imitators that follow will mean Guru won’t have to give an answer quite as disappointing as this one.