Abstract:
As Apple’s first foldable screen phone iPhone Duo is about to be officially launched, the FaceTime front camera hidden under its 7.6-inch inner screen has become the focus of attention. This is the first time Apple has used under-screen camera technology in a mass-produced device, but compared to other cameras on the device, the information Apple disclosed is significantly more limited.
According to the published technical specifications, the iPhone Duo exterior screen is equipped with a 12-megapixel front camera and two 48-megapixel cameras on the rear. However, Apple has not made it clear how many pixels the FaceTime camera located below the inner screen has.
Apple currently only introduces the functions of this camera, including support for Center Stage automatic character centering, f/1.8 aperture, click to zoom and rotate, enhanced anti-shake function, 1080p video recording (30fps or 60fps), Animoji and Memoji in FaceTime, wide color gamut photo and Live Photos shooting, lens correction, automatic image anti-shake, QuickTake Features include video capture, spatial audio and stereo recording, wind noise suppression, and Audio Mix audio mixing.
Judging from the specifications, this under-screen camera only supports video recording at up to 1080p and 60fps, while the front camera on the external screen supports recording at up to 4K 60fps, and the rear main camera can capture video at up to 4K 120fps. According to theoretical calculations, a sensor capable of recording 1080p video would need at least about 2 million pixels, and the inability to achieve 4K recording means that its pixel count may be less than 8 million. Since Apple has not announced specific values, it is widely speculated that the actual specifications of this sensor may be closer to a low-pixel solution.
It is worth noting that the f/1.8 aperture of the under-screen camera is even larger than the f/2.2 of the external-screen front camera. The industry believes that this is to compensate for the loss caused by light passing through the display panel, thereby increasing the amount of light entering. However, there is still a lack of sufficient actual measurement data to verify the trade-offs this design will bring in terms of image quality.
In fact, as early as the end of 2023, supply chain news revealed that LG Innotek was developing a dedicated under-screen camera solution for Apple and using a special free-form optical lens to reduce image distortion and compensate for brightness loss. However, it is not yet confirmed whether iPhone Duo will eventually adopt this technological achievement.
In addition, if you carefully observe the actual device, you will find that there are subtle differences between the area where the camera is located and the surrounding display area. The rest of the inner screen uses nano-texture anti-reflective treatment, but the camera coverage area does not seem to use the same process entirely, so there will be a more obvious reflective effect under certain light angles. At the same time, since the camera area may use a lower pixel density covering layer, its position can still be identified under certain ambient light conditions, and it is not completely "invisible" like in the promotional images.
Although Apple has successfully hidden the front camera under the display to achieve a more complete full-screen visual effect, the impact of this new technology on the quality of selfies, video calls and video recording still needs to wait for more actual use experience and professional test results to be revealed.
Comments