Under-Display Cameras Are Back: Can Apple and REDMAGIC Revive the Truly Bezel-Free Screen?

Under-display camera (UDC) technology, once heralded as the ultimate destination for true edge-to-edge displays, is suddenly back in the spotlight. Following the debut of Apple's first foldable device, the iPhone Duo, an optical innovation that spent years sidelined has returned to mainstream tech conversations. Almost simultaneously, REDMAGIC announced its upcoming ninth-generation under-display camera technology, reaffirming its long-standing commitment to unbroken display panels on high-performance flagships.

While commercial under-display camera hardware first rolled off factory floors six years ago, most smartphone manufacturers quickly retreated to standard punch-hole cutouts after initial experimentation. REDMAGIC remained one of the rare brands consistently pushing the format forward. With Apple now adopting an under-display sensor for its foldable hardware, questions naturally follow: what technical bottlenecks forced mainstream brands to abandon the technology in the first place, and does this renewed interest signal a broader industry shift?

Why Under-Display Cameras Struggled to Go Mainstream

When ZTE introduced the Axon 20 5G in 2020 as the world's first mass-produced under-display camera phone, followed by engineering demonstrations from Xiaomi and OPPO, industry consensus suggested that notches, waterdrops, and hole-punches would rapidly become relics of early smartphone design. Six years later, market realities look entirely different. Under-display cameras failed to penetrate the mainstream, remaining confined to specialized devices because they struggled to meet daily consumer imaging expectations.

The root challenge is optical physics. A standard punch-hole leaves a clear opening for light to reach the image sensor, whereas an under-display camera requires incoming light to pass through the OLED panel's pixel matrix, electrodes, and multiple substrate layers. Despite the thinness of modern screen assemblies, the volume of light penetrating these layers is severely diminished. To compensate for reduced exposure, the camera must hike sensitivity or lengthen shutter speeds, inevitably introducing sensor noise, loss of fine detail, and prominent glare in low-light environments.

Furthermore, the regular grid of pixels and circuitry acts as a diffraction grating, scattering light and creating heavy halos around bright light sources. To alleviate this, manufacturers adjusted the screen structure above the sensor by thinning out circuitry and modifying pixel layouts. However, altering pixel density or structure created a secondary problem: localized display discrepancies. Early under-display implementations suffered from noticeable graininess, color shifting, or a visible circular halo directly over the lens.

This created a frustrating irony. Consumers sought under-display cameras for a seamless front panel, only to end up with an obvious visual artifact embedded in the screen. Even on recent hardware like the iPhone Duo, the camera area can remain detectable under certain viewing angles and color backgrounds. The fundamental trade-off remains difficult to balance: maximizing light transmittance compromises display uniformity, while maintaining high display density starves the camera sensor of light.

Engineering progress has certainly been made. REDMAGIC across multiple hardware generations, systematically refined pixel layouts, driver circuits, and front-facing image processing algorithms. Under standard viewing conditions, the camera zone is now virtually invisible during everyday use. In hands-on testing, the hidden lens is virtually undetectable across indoor and outdoor lighting at almost any viewing angle, becoming faintly noticeable only in complete darkness with the screen active.

However, an invisible screen region does not mean flawless photography. Because raw optical data is inevitably degraded by the screen layers, manufacturers depend heavily on algorithmic post-processing for noise reduction, de-hazing, color restoration, and diffraction correction. Yet computational algorithms cannot fully recover fine textures lost in high-contrast or backlit scenes. With consumers demanding high-quality HDR selfies, portrait depth, and sharp 4K video calling, under-screen optics continue to face an uphill battle against conventional front sensors.

Cost is the final barrier. Customizing display substrates, sensor modules, and proprietary imaging pipelines requires substantial research and capital expenditure. Conventional punch-holes, meanwhile, have become exceptionally tiny, reliable, and inexpensive to produce. Because consumers have grown comfortable with subtle screen cutouts, mainstream brands found little financial justification to absorb the premium of under-display integration.

REDMAGIC Prioritizes Gaming; Apple Targets Foldable Immersion

Given the persistent technical compromises, why do REDMAGIC and Apple continue to invest heavily in under-screen cameras? The answer lies in their distinct product philosophies.

For REDMAGIC, screen continuity directly serves its gaming audience. While standard phone users easily ignore a small hole-punch, mobile gamers holding a device in landscape view often find cutouts obstructive, especially when key interface elements, mini-maps, or control buttons sit near the edge of the panel. REDMAGIC builds hardware around aggressive, purpose-driven specs—built-in cooling fans, physical shoulder triggers, and tailored operating systems. Its user base readily accepts moderate front-camera trade-offs in exchange for a pure, unobstructed display.

Apple's approach, on the other hand, leverages the structural advantages of a foldable form factor. Rather than introducing the technology on a traditional glass slab, Apple deployed an under-display sensor exclusively on the inner folding panel of the iPhone Duo. Foldables justify their price tag through expansive interior canvas space, designed for media playback, gaming, and split-screen productivity—use cases where a physical hole-punch can be especially intrusive.

Crucially, a foldable device neatly sidesteps the selfie quality dilemma. The iPhone Duo retains a conventional high-grade front-facing camera on its outer cover screen for quick daily selfies, and users can use the primary rear cameras alongside the outer preview screen for portrait-grade shots. The internal under-display sensor is primarily reserved for casual video conferencing, where peak photographic detail is less critical.

Interestingly, achieving this clean inner canvas led Apple to step away from Face ID on the iPhone Duo, replacing it with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Hiding an entire structured-light 3D facial recognition array beneath an active display is exponentially more complex than concealing a single camera module. A side-mounted Touch ID sensor delivers reliable authentication whether the device is folded or unfolded, without complicating the folding screen assembly.

Can Under-Display Cameras Ever Truly Dominate the Market?

Over the past several years, smartphone manufacturers experimented with mechanical pop-up modules, sliding bodies, and secondary rear displays in pursuit of a true full-screen experience. Almost all of those complex mechanisms were eventually phased out in favor of the practical punch-hole. In today's mature smartphone market, consumer interest has pivoted toward battery longevity, thermal performance, and imaging excellence rather than design novelties alone.

Apple's implementation on the iPhone Duo demonstrates that under-display camera technology has a compelling role to play in large-screen foldables. If the device proves commercially successful, other manufacturers may rethink under-screen implementations for flexible displays. For the foreseeable future, however, under-display cameras and punch-hole displays are likely to coexist: the former serving immersion-first form factors like foldables and gaming flagships, while conventional hole-punch designs remain the standard across the broader market.

Would you trade front-camera photo sharpness for a completely uninterrupted display on your daily driver, or is selfie fidelity too important to compromise? For foldable devices specifically, do you think moving from Face ID to side-mounted Touch ID is a worthwhile sacrifice for a notch-free inner screen?