Under-screen cameras, yay or nay?

Dave Stevenson

Guru hasn’t yet put his own grubby paws on the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 – Samsung pointedly did not invite your ham-fisted 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 – particularly at the price point. 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.