If there’s a singular trend to point to for phones in 2018, it’s the effort to cram as much screen into a device as possible. Oppo’s new Find X, which is being officially announced at a live streamed event in Paris today, combines a number of trendy design ideas, plus some even newer tricks, to fit an extremely large 6.4-inch display into a phone that you can still hold in one hand. The Find X’s design is so space efficient that Oppo claims it has a screen to body ratio of 93.8 percent. And it does this without utilizing a notch, which should make at least some people happy.
The most interesting aspect of the Find X’s design is its camera system, which is completely hidden when the phone is off or the camera app is closed. When you turn the Find X on and open the camera app, the entire top section of the phone motorizes up and reveals a 25-megapixel front-facing camera, 3D facial scanning system, and 16-megapixel + 20-megapixel dual rear camera. Close the camera app and the whole assembly motors back into the phone’s chassis. Oppo says the camera can open in just 0.5 seconds, and based on my experience, that seems fairly accurate.
I have my doubts about the longevity and durability of motorized camera systems like these, but there’s no denying it’s a pretty neat trick.
Small stepper motors are ridiculously robust, they can easily raise and sink that camera housing 5000 times.
Edited 2018-06-20 23:42 UTC
I take up to twenty pictures at work on some days. If your number is accurate I’d kill the motor in less than a year, not even counting personal use like vacations.
Morgan,
I’d wait for early adapters/reviews to determine if it’s robust, but assuming it is I’d sure take it over apple’s notch! It looked bad when it launched, and it hasn’t grown on me since, haha. This popup camera is actually cool.
Having it motorized is neat, but even a manual camera would be practical: Pop out the camera and the camera app could start up automatically if you aren’t already in a camera app. Add some manual shutter and zoom buttons on there too…
We’ve been dropping tactile buttons and reducing everything to a flat touchscreen input, but oftentimes I find this sensory deprivation has made devices less usable IMHO. It would please me to see tactile input make a comeback, maybe some day tactile buttons will be “in” again.
Same, I can’t stand the look of the notch both on the iPhone X and the various Android based me-toos.
If it’s built with the same quality as a good point and shoot camera with a telescoping lens, it will probably last longer than andywoe‘s estimate.
Hell, I just wish phones still came with dedicated two-stage shutter buttons. That’s one of the many neat features I miss from my Windows Phone days.
The camera is raised while the camera app is open, so is a motor drive once per photo session, not once per picture.
And that’s the good thing about diversity: maybe this particular phone is not the best for your use case, but there are plenty of options.
Indeed, and I am glad to see some real innovation in the boring slate phone space. I can also keep wishing for slide out/fold out keyboards to come back to phones, but I think that’s a lost battle at this point.
I’m still trying to fathom, the whole reason for this. WTF was wrong with having a 5-8 mm bezel and having it there? What positive effect does the edge-to-edge screen have?
None. We live in the age of zero innovation where marketing tries to push new product to market relying on ridiculous extremes, such as “now 1mm slimmer!” or “now 1mm less bezel!”.
Or, much more often simply “Now it looks exactly like iPhone!!” I absolutely despise such product vendors and people who buy them.
Edited 2018-06-21 06:33 UTC
Simply put, creating a 99% screen-to-body-ratio phone, helps the manufacturer stuff larger display in a fairly small(ish) phone.
Personally, I would love to have larger display on my Note8.
– Gilboa
Edited 2018-06-21 07:58 UTC
When I meet people like that I always ask them “Why did you buy such a tiny TV?”
Point taken.
Though, to be honest, even though I’ve got a fairly powerful workstation at home and at work, I sometimes find that its far more convenient to use my Samsung Note to answer short mails and access my RSS feeds.
Guess I’m getting lazy…
– Gilboa
My concern would be what happens when you drop the phone with camera out. Or even with camera closed, directly impacting the camera mechanism. I am sure one unfortunate drop would be enough to completely cripple the motor.
It reminds me of the fashion in the 80s / early 90’s for cars with popup headlights. Neat trick, until you realise you’ve introduced yet another poorly-made mechanical bit that can go wrong in an expensive fashion… and even when working, offers no advantage over a standard headlight…
Delgarde,
Those popup lights were just for looks and offered no advantages, just style, so I’d agree with you there. However this popout camera actually addresses a real compromise between screen real-estate, odd shaped displays, and device size. I would consider this for myself, assuming the build quality is good, not because of style, but because it takes less space than a bezel and doesn’t cut into the display with a notch.
It’s ok that some people won’t like it and prefer a notch or bezel, choice is good, to each their own!
Only until there’s no other choice. Then you’re forced to use what you don’t like, because there are no alternatives. Just like now if you want a physical keyboard and a decent battery your only choice is a dumbphone.
Ten years ago I had a slide-out phone in my Nokia N95. After one trip to the beach, where it was on a towel, the sliding screen mechanism gritted with the sand grinding its way into the mechanism. It was never the same again.
The design is very cool, but I worry about dust and debris getting into the mechanism. Will the phone be water resistant? What about cases for the phone?
This is a nice, elegant solution to the ugly notch. I rarely use my phone’s camera so for me this is a boon.