One of the great challenges that mobile phone manufacturers continue to face is how to make the most of the front . Some have been solving it with the use of the notch, others with retractable cameras and soon those who bet on cameras under the screen will begin to arrive in a massive way. Although OPPO experiments with another idea, a camera that you can remove from the terminal whenever you want.
OPPO and its removable camera
OPPO can be criticized for different decisions it makes when making mobile phones, but if there is something that cannot be denied it is that it seeks to innovate whenever it can . Another thing is that then the solution to which it arrives provides a true value or not, but they are there. Although they also have solutions whose sole objective is to offer an interesting product at a striking price, such as the OPPO A91.
The last one is related to that challenge that we mentioned before, how to achieve a front on a smartphone that is truly all screen? How to eliminate from there the front camera that, despite many different opinions, is still essential in daily use and much more now with so much video calling? Well, OPPO seems to have another solution to those already known and that it has patented.
OPPO’s new proposal does not use any type of notch or periscope-type camera system as we have already seen both in some of its models or in the competition. Nor is it a proposal that is going to play with new technologies capable of placing it under the panel. Which by the way, the ZTE Axon 20 5G seems to have been the first to be officially launched on the market making use of that. OPPO’s idea is for it to be detachable.
That is to say, the OPPO patent describes a rear camera system that would be removable . As if it were one of the modules that we saw years ago in Project Ara, but with the ability to work wirelessly as well.
What would it contribute to current solutions?
A rear camera module that you can remove and use via a wireless connection that keeps it connected to your smartphone, what benefits would it bring? Although the first thing that comes to mind is the opposite, its drawbacks.
To begin with, it must be said that this is nothing more than a patent, so it may not happen or it does it in a completely different way. So much so that it is not really a way to do without the front camera. So, knowing this, let’s look at the best and worst it could bring.
The best of a removable camera module
- The first benefit would logically be able to update with better sensors in the future if OPPO considered a universal design for its phones, even if they were only for a certain range.
- A removable camera would also allow shots from angles and places that are not accessible even for a smartphone.
- Ability to improve the selfie photos you take with higher quality sensors
The worst of a removable camera module
- Need for own battery, which would surely imply less autonomy and that could be a problem in video calls
- The more moving parts or extrapoles there are, the more chances of a possible breakdown
- Surcharge for a product that must remain functional rather than spectacular
Nobody said that innovating was easy
As you can see, it is easy to fault a proposal of this type, but it is also exciting to see that it could lead to advantages or new ideas based on it. What is clear is that innovating is not easy and that must be taken into account to assess the efforts that companies like OPPO make.
And it is that this phone with a removable camera is not the only thing that the brand works on, pay attention to this other device with a roll-up screen that was seen. Very striking for the technology used at the hardware level and also for its software implementation to adapt elements such as the interface as you expand or not.
In the end, it is true that the important thing is that the product continues to be useful on a daily basis, but if ideas like this are not experimented with, it is also impossible to find new solutions to problems that are there, although we still look for them ourselves.