Samsung Galaxy S21 Tipped to Feature Under-Display Selfie Camera

Samsung announced its Galaxy S20 lineup of smartphones in February and already, rumours about its next generation Galaxy S-series phones have started surfacing. A tipster claims that the Galaxy S21 (name unconfirmed) could feature an under-display selfie camera. In the quest to achieve maximum screen real-estate, an under-display selfie camera seems to be the next obvious step for smartphone manufacturers.

According to a tweet by tipster Ice universe, Samsung may be evaluating the under-display selfie camera technology. The tweet states that Samsung is considering using the under-screen camera technology on the Galaxy S21 first. It mentions ‘Galaxy S21' indicating that the next generation Galaxy S-series phone may be called the Galaxy S21. But, that is also just speculation as Samsung jumped from the Galaxy S10 series to the Galaxy S20 series, skipping over the Galaxy S11 nomenclature. Also, since there is no confirmation from Samsung regarding the same, this news should be taken with a pinch of salt.

In the past, Oppo and Xiaomi have showcased prototype phones with an under-display selfie camera. But, according to the report by SamMobile, the quality of photos taken from those cameras was less than desirable. The issue was insufficient lighting and pixel count in the area of the screen where the selfie camera is placed. The report also points out that Samsung makes the best OLED panels in the world and if anybody can tackle these issues, it's Samsung.

We have seen several implementations of the selfie camera that aim to provide greater screen real-estate with an uninterrupted display. There have been notches – both big and small, hole-punch displays, and pop-up selfie cameras. While the pop-up selfie camera implementation seems to provide the most screen space, it required adding moving parts to the phone which can cause issues overtime. Notably, Samsung has experimented with the hole-punch, notch design, and a peculiar rotating camera design.