PepperPot, 07 Aug 2021
7 months since ZTE released their 1st UDC phone, but this is not about Oppo. I posted here be...
more
Yeah, but released or not, this tech take a LONG time to come. Some techs are worth searching for decades or even more, like fusion reactors, because of their immense benefits. But many others that can perfectly be replaced by something better aren't worth the efforts. The pop up camera and notches probably took a really low amount of time to be R&D as they are extremely simple, the Punch hole probably required more time as you need to reroute all the wires for the pixels on top of the hole. Underdisplay fingerprint scanner took quite a long time to be actually done, then more time to be perfected, and now it is in a situation where it can't improve much anymore, at least the hardware side. Ultrasonic FPS are still in their "improvement" stage, but their potential is colossal, from being able with good software to read and identify material density and therefor automatically sort out screen protectors, dust, grease, water, gloves, etc. Not only saving stuffs like screen protectors and often reoccurring like skin's oil/grease, but also human flesh for anti-fooling. Since it scan under the epidermic layer, fooling it would require a dermis layer reproduction, and crazy stuff like scanning dermal papillae and sweat glands could be done to significantly improve the security. Add to that the ability to scan for veins, check the liquid density to be blood, read heartbeat, scan the distal phalanx, and the scalable capability (unlike cameras) that allow for big area/full display meaning multiple fingers, has the potential to make this single tech, the most secure biometric scanner that any consumer could own. Only matched by advanced 3D face recognition that would add UV light and sensors along a dynamic (high resolution/scanning) Structured Light scanner, an IR camera and a dual/stereoscopic RGB camera. Those are worth investing! But the UDC only has issues, many of which cannot be fixed, the rest can only be compensated. And more important, there are other techs who do the same thing with basically no cons and with much better results. Had pop up took a year or more of R&D and got a bad initial result, it would have quickly been deemed not worth it, and I would have totally agreed, but it was a really simple thing to make, literally anyone with good enough tools could make one at home, and the first implementation was already excellent.The issue isn't that THIS tech is also researched, the issue is that ONLY this tech is R&D and people are so obsessed about it because of the hype they want ONLY this tech to exist, which, with all its downsides, shouldn't even be considered anywhere near a universal solution, bezel are the only solution as yet that can be considered universal, disappearing camera coming close behind. Let's be clear, UDC refers to having the camera behind the display and looking THROUGH it DIRECTLY, disappearing camera are NOT UDC, otherwise by definition pop up would also be UDC... Regardless the method, looking through pixels will never be anywhere as good as other methods, such as disappearing cameras. The same way, as I explained, pop up was quick and easy to nail first try, disappearing camera are also super simple, they would take only few weeks from the drawing board to prototyping and would be easy to make a good version to be commercialized for a low cost.This is where it is an issue, this moving sub-panel/disappearing camera solution is CHEAP and EASY to make in SHORT TIME, it is easy to understand why, the mechanism is super simplistic, just a sub display sliding, it isn't exposed to the elements, don't need any external protection, the distance difference between the main display and the sub display/prism is so small that it won't be visible. While the "see through pixels" UDC is to come on a lot of devices from a lot of price range... This is pure insanity here!Don't underestimate the smartphone market: *Removing the actively used 3.5mm Jack that didn't cause any issues. *Ditching the IR blaster (except for Xiaomi) that was really handy in many situations. *Focus on optical FPS over the much superior capacitive and ultrasonic ones. *Widespread of horror quality 2Mp Macro and totally useless 2Mp depth camera (useless because using any other camera, like the Ultra-Wide, would yield much better results) despite good 12Mp sensors being extremely cheap. *Recurrent lack of optical stabilization on middle to high range devices, despite it being on some cheap phones and the sensors + lenses for those being cheap too. *Constant lack of Telephoto despite it not being much more expensive than other lenses types. *Macro being used through the Ultra-Wide through close auto-focusing capabilities despite Macro being the exact opposite of Ultra-Wide and being closer to a Telephoto that have a close and shallow focus area, which in a less aggressive way is how Portrait works, but yet despite the possibility to make a triple mode Telephoto, they prefer putting the Macro on Ultra-Wide and using a 2Mp depth sensor for faking (and often failing) Brokeh effect. *Plague of sub-12Mp sensors even on flagships for Telephoto and middle-range for Ultra-Wide, again, despite 12Mp sensors super low price. *No continuously variable focal length (true zoom). *Displays with holes and dents in them, which, anyone outside the smartphone world, would tell you it is an awful idea. *Lack of NFC and some other useful features on some phones despite being international/global variants. *Lack of Micro SD card slot, despite all the convenience it provides. *Curved edges display that apart for a visual appeal to SOME have only downsides. *Camera bump while the phone could be made slightly thicker to have more battery capacity and/or more features, on EVERY phone, meaning nothing for thicker phone lovers or those who prefer battery. *Induction based wireless charging rather than contact based, which would have allowed for virtually 0 losses compared to regular USB cables and much faster charging while not generating much heat phone side and almost none charging pad side. *Expensive phones with the latest high-end Snapdragon limited to 480fps slow motion, and almost all phones capped at 960fps since a while, while Huawei already had in 2019 with the Mate 30 Pro at 720p a 7680fps slow-mo mode, that haters can say whatever they want, have a HUGE difference with 960fps and is more than fluid enough :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z2zzdT_DbM
And only a handful of phones having ever had 1920fps :
https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sFreeText=1920fps
Etc, etc. So, do you REALLY think they'll stop at that to make a trending and highly hyped feature that will allow them to justify a big price increase a mandatory one, even if it has a low quality?