While Apple has begun looking to launch an "all-screen" iPhone, it has been slowly moving towards a stage where its devices no longer feature notches of any kind. We first saw bangs on the iPhoneX, and then saw smaller bangs on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. Next, the company launched "DynamicIsland".
For a truly "bezel-less" iPhone, LG Innotek has been included in the supplier list and is said to provide Apple with under-display cameras (UDC), but the first wave of "full-screen" iPhones are not expected to be available so early.
Most phone manufacturers are yet to adopt under-display cameras on their phones due to the significant drop in image quality. According to TheElec, LG Innotek hopes to eliminate this huge flaw by developing a special lens called "Freeform Optic." This lens can overcome the limitations of existing UDCs, where there are multiple lenses on the module with one or more surfaces in a "free curve" shape.
LGInnotek has been publishing patents for this technology since December 2022. Development work has now begun, and more patents are expected to be published subsequently.
LG Display also seems to have begun actual product research and development. Its main goal is to increase the light transmittance of UDC to 20% by 2023 and to 40% after 2024. It's likely that Apple wants these under-display cameras to perform on par with regular selfie cams, so it might be a while before we see the first iPhone models with this hardware sea change.
At the earliest, the first iPhone equipped with an under-screen camera will be launched after 2026, which means that this technology may not debut until after the iPhone 18 series. Even so, the report doesn't guarantee that release timeline, especially since Apple is likely to hit a number of hurdles as it perfects its first iteration. Before that happens, we may see the tech giant integrate FaceID under the display, which is a sensor that doesn’t have that high of an image quality requirement.