Samsung: Designs its smartphone tomorrow with the camera "inside" the screen

Shortly after the official launch of the new Galaxy S10 series, Samsung is reportedly planning its next move which will be a completely "full-screen" phone.

Τdoes that mean? Quite simply that the next Samsung smartphone will have a screen that will cover 100% of the front surface of the phone. This translates into the absence of a notch at the top of the screen and bezels.

The news was broadcast by the Korean news agency Yonhap, while hosting statements by Yang Byung-duk, vice president of Samsung and head of research and development (R&D). "The technology can reach the point where the camera hole will be invisible, while it will not in any way affect the functionality of the camera," was the characteristic statement of the Korean company executive.

At this point it should be recalled that Samsung never adopted the characteristic notch above the screen, something that almost all manufacturers did following the example of Apple with the iPhone X., which was officially announced in the fall of 2017. Instead, the Korean company adopted the camera hole solution we saw in recent Galaxy S10 series.

This trick, also called hole-punch, essentially "cuts" the screen in the area where the camera is located, resulting in the visual effect of the hole in the screen. Given that Samsung has not announced any timetable for the announcement of its next line of devices, Yang clarified that "it would not be possible" for this to happen in the next one to two years.

Given that Samsung very recently made a huge design leap by introducing it its first device with a folding screen It should not be considered unlikely that a truly "full screen" device will be introduced relatively soon. It is noteworthy that Yang described the Infinity-O screen of the S10 series as an "achievement for the company".

However, we should not be surprised by Samsung's intentions. Since last October, the company has expressed its intention to "increase" the size of the screens on its devices. This will be done using some very specific technologies: by placing fingerprint scanners inside the screen, by placing camera sensors inside the screen, by using tactile technologies on the screen and by integrating the speakers also inside the screen (something similar to the G8 of LG Electronics).

However, the news confirms something very specific. That there is now very intense competition between the various manufacturers to be the first to launch new technologies into the market. Note that the in-screen fingerprint scanner first appeared on devices from several Chinese manufacturers, while the first smartphone with a hole-punch screen was the also Chinese Honor View 20 (although the S10 is the first with a hole-punch OLED screen). At the same time the Vivo and other Chinese manufacturers have experimented with camera scrolling solutions (slider) or pop-up mechanism solutions in order to gain space for more screen.

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