Whether we like it or not, our smartphone cameras have become a passionate part of our lives, especially now in the selfie generation. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat all encourage sharing images, providing users platforms to do so, which is why we have seen so much progress in the smartphone camera technology department over the years.
As the smartphone and its functionalities revolutionize over time, so have we as users. We no longer have to wait until after the news has finished seeing what the weather is going to be like.
We no longer have to wait for Match of the Day to see the highlights of a football game and more importantly we no longer have to keep peeking out of the window waiting for our delivery because we can trace the driver’s movements, and it’s all thanks to these beautiful, slender, sleek, glossy devices we are all so attached to.
From the image below it is possible to see the penetration of smartphones throughout the world and the number of users geographically. The darker more dense areas indicate a higher number of the population. Therefore, more smartphone users compared to regions in lighter colors.
Although all this tech is terrific and it gives us incredible new capabilities of looking like animals thanks to Snapchat filters, it all does come at a cost. One of those costs is the amount of privacy we are offered. More often than not we never read the small print when accepting the terms and conditions of apps that we download. Due to this reason, some apps that we think wouldn’t need access to our front facing cameras actually do access it. Which is why pop-up camera phones might just be the future.
Majority of the phones on the market today have the camera inbuilt into the screen or at the back of the phones with no covers like to ones we see on Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxys. This means they are exposed to whatever they are pointing at. However, with pop-up camera phones, this would not be possible as the camera would be hidden until it is needed which means when not in use it would be tucked away.
The Vivo Nex is one of these phones that could revolutionise smartphone designs. It has an 8-megapixel camera that pop-up from the top of the phone. Not only does this make it secure against privacy invaders but it also means there’s no notch on the top of the phone giving users 91% more screen compared to what’s currently available on the market. The design is done so well that the phone looks excellent even when the camera is popped up.
Vivo has pushed the boat out further and got rid of the speaker grill that most phones have and have turned the phone screen into a speaker itself by placing speakers behind it. This again gives users more of a display screen and balances the wave of sound equally rather than it just coming out of one side of the phone.
Another Phone that also offers a pop-up camera is the Oppo Find X. According to SmartphoneChecker, on the Oppo, the entire top portion of the phone motorises up to reveal a 25-megapixel rear and 16-megapixel front-facing camera.
The camera pops up when a camera app is activated. Once you close the camera app, the whole top portion of the phone disappears leaving a phone with a large part of the screen just like the Vivo. The Oppo looks quite similar to the Samsung Galaxy range with its curved edges and offers an OLED display.
Both of these phones offer technology that is comparable and maybe even better to the mass market in comparison to what is currently available on the market today, the fact that this type of technology exists and is working successfully creates another opportunity for tech giants to adapt and dominate the smartphone market.
If and when we begin to see pop-up cameras appear on more devices by more manufactures it will be interesting to see what apps will activate the camera pop-up even when the app does not need the camera to carry out its sole function.
