Rumors surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S23 are starting to gather pace, and the latest to catch our attention concerns the selfie camera: it looks like Samsung isn’t going to switch to an under-display camera on the front of the phone right now.
it comes from supply chain sources (opens in new tab) in South Korea (via Wccftech (opens in new tab)), and that means Galaxy S23 phones will still have screen notches like their predecessors. We may have to wait for the Galaxy S24 for this particular component to change.
There’s no reason given for Samsung to delay introducing an under-screen selfie camera, but there are plenty of possibilities: maybe Samsung isn’t happy with the photo quality, or maybe it raises the price of the phone too much.
All about selfies
What makes this rumor a bit surprising is that there is a 4MP camera under the screen built into the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. Samsung knows how to make the technology work, even though the resulting photos and videos are of relatively high resolution. low.
And that’s probably the main consideration here. While we still don’t take this as confirmation, it makes sense that Samsung wouldn’t want to sacrifice camera quality in order to be able to have a phone screen free of any kind of cropping.
A few days ago we heard that the standard S23 and S23 Plus models would see an increase in selfie camera resolution to 12MP, so there are pipeline changes for that particular spec – even though Samsung is sticking to a conventional approach.
Analysis: perfecting the technology
We’ve seen cameras under-display on a number of handsets now, including the aforementioned Galaxy Z Fold 3 and other phones like the Xiaomi Mix 4, but it’s also fair to say the technology isn’t ready for prime time just yet.
While these hidden under-screen selfie cameras work, engineering challenges mean the image quality isn’t on par with a conventional selfie camera — one that doesn’t need to peek through pixels to snap a photo or capture a video.
Of course, over time there will be progress, as with all other smartphone components. However, if Samsung decides to delay a low-screen selfie camera on the Galaxy S23, it’s another sign that more improvements need to be made.
The Galaxy S23 is expected to launch in early 2023, but other phones released in the next year may feature the technology. In fact, it’s rumored to appear on the Google Pixel foldable phone, which is expected to appear this year or next.
