“Pop” it Like It’s Hot

Yes, we’ve all seen the new smartphone feature craze, Pop-up Selfie cameras. That’s the new gimmick all manufacturers have been adding to their latest phones and while they certainly look VERY futuristic and make the screen look BEAUTIFUL, they have their downsides which may turn this “feature” into a “gimmick” for some people. But first, we should know the reason why we need to make our phones look like they were made as a prop for the next star trek.

The whole reason behind this emergence of pop-up cameras is the same as the reason for the creation of the notch, to reduce bezel sizes. Bezels are the black (or colored, depending on your phone) bars that surround the display. Now, I agree, lesser and thinner bezels have lead to generally sleeker and better-looking phones but, manufacturers are now going over-the-top with their ways to squeeze the bezels

Let’s look at some of them :

• The Notch: the earliest attempt at greatly reducing bezels and probably the most down-to-earth out of all of them. Basically, manufacturers cut out a part of the top of the display to fit in the front camera/s and the front sensors AND have a bit more screen at the same time. Now, there were a couple of phones who did it before Apple released their iPhone X and EVERY SINGLE manufacturer started making phones with the notch, varying in shape and size. From the regular rounded rectangle to the waterdrop to the squared drop, almost all of them were born from manufacturers trying to imitate Apple and to ‘Improve’ their design.

• The Slider: it was first introduced with the entry of the Nokia 7650 in 2002. Now, since then, smartphones have changed in every single aspect, from design to function. The slider was brought back from the grave most notably with the oppo find X, but that was motorized unlike the old days. Xiaomi was the one to properly resurrect the slider with their Mi MIX 3, which featured a fully functional slider, powered by the user and many others followed.

• The Pop-up Selfie Camera: now, the heart and soul of this blog’s title, the ‘pop’-up selfie camera was made to eliminate the need for notches or sliders. Well, there’s not much to say about it, the entirety of the front of the phone is screen and all the sensors and the camera unit is stuffed into a small, motorized unit which rises from the top of your phone whenever you require the camera and/or the sensors. It’s a basic concept but it looks pretty futuristic and fun.

Now, all of these have their benefits, the notch is plain and gives more durability than the other two, the slider looks and feels AWESOME and the pop-up makes your phone feel like a cool prop from a sci-fi movie. But every coin has two sides, which means that all of these have their downsides, the notch makes the top of the phone look awkward and gives less space for primary sensors, the slider mechanism can become a home for dust and gunk and scratch the camera and the back of the screen, the pop-up has the same issue, it’s another moving part which decreases durability and may break or get stuck.

All I’m asking you to do is consider what you’re gaining and what you’re losing and THEN make a choice. Don’t follow the advertisement just because it looks cool, hold up, wait a minute, take a deep breath and then think. Think about what you can compromise and what you cannot.