Smartphone manufacturers have a problem, and this is the problem of us, the smartphone consumer.
When they ask us what we want, we say: everything! We want our screens to be bigger, but our glasses are smaller, our batteries last longer, our phones are thinner.
And most importantly, we want to take selfies with such a high resolution that the individual atoms that make up our face can be seen.
It's hard enough juggling all these different requirements for any given hardware, but when you're faced with the limitations of mobile phones, it's even tougher.
And that is why smartphones are becoming rare.
Everything about this space.
Smartphones claim to bring together many technologies in a relatively small space. Once the battery is installed, there isn't much room left, but modern multi-use and multi-purpose flash camera assemblies require a lot of space and cameras are high on buyers' priority list.
How to square this circle? You can do what Apple does and stick a lump piece on the back and a notch on the front. Or you can literally think outside the box. Why have a built-in camera so you can have one pop up instead?
Contextual elements are not a new idea in camera design: compact cameras have been equipped with flashes for many years. But pop-up cameras on smartphones are a relatively new invention and a popular trend in smartphone design.
So where do they come from and will they stay?
slip
Making room for all the elements that manufacturers want to incorporate into a phone is a problem that dates back long before the original iPhone. The result has been iconic designs like the 3 Motorola Razr V2004 and the phone's flip and flip phones. The pre-iPhone era, like the O2 XDA II on Windows Mobile.
The HTC Desire Z was one of the last titled Android phones until BlackBerry recently got them back.
(Image credit: HTC)
At the time, the problem wasn't the camera, it was the keyboard. Whether folded or slid, the keyboard mechanisms were hidden until needed to make the peripherals look as small as possible.
Then the iPhone came along and got rid of the keyboard entirely, and everything was brilliant... until that wasn't the case anymore.
Space invaders
The keyboard problem may be gone, but after a few years, smartphone designers have faced a new kind of space invader: the camera.
While fashion demanded increasingly thinner glasses and edge-to-edge displays with ever larger batteries to power all the hardware, the space for camera gear was ever larger. more restricted, but at the same time, the number of cameras and sensors in a typical device was increasing.
Take the iPhone X, released by Apple in 2017. On the back, there is not a lens but two lenses and a flash; on the front, the camera set has sensors, an infrared camera, a front illuminator, a face recognition projector and the camera itself.
The notch on the iPhone X has divided opinion since its launch in 2017.
(Image credit: Future)
Unless you want to go back to being great role models, there are two ways to handle all of this. You can integrate the elements of the camera to the phone, either by taking a "notch" or an Apple approximation, or by inserting a part of the screen, either by inserting a "cut-out" punch hole "On the screen, solution implemented. In devices like the Samsung Galaxy S10.
Or you can build, as Huawei did in 2015 and many other companies are doing today.
The Huawei Shot X was one of the first phones to offer a pop-up camera
(Image credit: YouTube)
Are you in or out?
Huawei Shot X took a smart approach to tailoring the camera hardware to a sleek design - if it's not going to be used all the time, Huawei thought it didn't need to be seen all the time.
So Huawei pasted the camera into a drop-down tab that not only appeared, but made it in such a way that the main camera could be used to take selfies. However, the phone was not very successful, so the idea was not widely copied.
The first of the current generation of pop-up camera phones is the 2018 Vivo Nex, whose 8-megapixel camera appears when the camera app is on, although while it's there for selfies, it's not unlocked, for this you'll need a device. like the Vivo V15 Pro, whose contextual camera also allows quick face launch.
OnePlus has taken the ephemeral approach with its OnePlus 7 Pro, like Realme with Realme X's Sony self-powered sniper shooter.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi returned in the mid-1990s to Matrix-style phones for its Mi Mix 3, which has sliding-back front and rear cameras, and the Lenovo Z5 Pro and Oppo Find X models also adopt Sliding Focus. .
The Samsung A80 simply lifts and swivels the high-power camera forward.
(Image credit: Samsung)
Samsung takes a slightly different tactic. The Samsung Galaxy A80's camera won't open: its camera rotates, allowing you to aim your targets and 48 megapixels as you like, and this rotating section also includes the depth camera for portrait effects.
Asus has a similar system in its ZenFone 6, which again offers 48-megapixels in its motorized case. It was actually a first phone in the Oppo N3, a phone randomly sent to TechRadar and sitting proudly in our lobby of curiosities... until the technology suddenly became popular again.
The Oppo N3 camera ... is not a phone without glasses.
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
Which is the best: pop-up, punch-hole or notch?
Regardless of what technology you use, cameras have the same basic requirement - they need a lens to let light through and see what you're shooting, and bigger is often better here.
Let's first look at a camera with a notched design, where space is very limited. The front camera in the iPhone XS Max slot is a fixed focus lens with a 32mm equivalent focal length and an aperture of f / 2.2.
Aperture tells you how much light is entering the interior. The lower the number, the better it is. The focal length tells you the degree of zoom before the image, so the size or size of the subjects in the frame and the low values in numbers, it is better to insert them further into the frame.
Compare the iPhone's notch camera to that of the Samsung S10 Plus, which has a larger footprint thanks to its perforated design (and two cameras instead of one).
The Galaxy S10 Plus is equipped with the punch-hole camera.
(Image credit: LaComparacion)
The main front camera has an aperture of f / 1.9 to f / 2.2 Apple and a shorter focal length, equivalent to 25mm. This is comparable to the iPhone's main camera, which is f / 1.8 and 26mm.
What about pop-ups? The front camera of the OnePlus 7 Pro has a focal length equivalent to 25mm and an aperture of f / 2.0. Again, this is comparable to the main rear camera on many phones.
Because it is important? Well, in order to bring the best technology to smartphones (and allow brands to charge a little more for the privilege), these front-facing cameras need to start competing with the technology on the back and the physics between the two. reduce them
Will the emerging bubble burst?
Are pop-ups the future? We do not suspect. This is because moving mechanical parts are stressed: they are worn, broken, and objects enter them. This is especially true when they are in a device that spends so much time in pockets and bags that contain lint and various debris.
If your moving parts are motorized, the engine is another potential point of failure. It also causes a loss of power - each pop-up may not require a lot of power, but if you use the camera multiple times during the day, it mounts.
One solution could be to go back to the other way of hiding the material, as the iconic Motorola Razr demonstrates: folding it instead of making it disappear.
Although the first tests of folding phones have not been successful, huge sums have been invested in the manufacture of these phones. If we believe the rumors, some of this money is used by Apple.
We can't help but think that the problem largely lies in the fact that manufacturers prioritize form over functionality. After all, we already have a solution to the selfie problem that does not require spring loading, motor or cutting tool. screen.
This is called a telescope and is a very good place to install a camera, if it can be miniaturized to fit the portion of space around the phone.
The Oppo subscreen camera advertises as the next step in front-facing cameras ... if the technology works.
(Image credit: Oppo)
If it does not work, then it must become invisible: Samsung has already confirmed that it was working on an impossible-to-see sensor (and the quality of the camera does not seem affected) and Oppo was even further Away showing a prototype of this technology.
According to The Verge, Oppo admits that this will have a slight impact on camera quality, but has found ways to optimize the hardware so that the quality is comparable.
Invisible cameras seem to be the obvious next step in the pop-up window, a step that doesn't appear at all. It simply turns on when needed and creates an uninterrupted display, free of mechanical shocks. There is more to wait to see when (or if) technology will become the norm.