Samsung May Be Losing Love For Under Display Cameras
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Summary
- Samsung first used an under-display camera (UDC) on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to eliminate screen cutouts for the selfie lens.
- Leaks suggest that while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will likely still feature UDC, Samsung may abandon the technology afterward due to cost and quality challenges.
- Future devices like the potential Galaxy Z Fold 8 might revert to a standard punch-hole camera on the main display instead of the hidden UDC.
No one likes having a notch or punch-hole disrupting the viewing experience when you’re enjoying yet another Netflix binge session. Samsung’s solution for this was an under-display camera (UDC), which ditches the traditional front-facing selfie camera on the surface in favor of one that’s hidden beneath the phone’s main display under a series of pixels.
Ultimately, a UDC doesn’t require a punch-hole or notch cutout in the display. Samsung first debuted this with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in August 2021, and it then made its way to the Z Fold 4 and Z Fold 5. To date, the only Samsung flagship series that uses UDC is the Galaxy Z Fold, starting with all the Fold devices launched after 2021.
While there have been rumors and speculation swirling around suggesting that Samsung has some plans up its sleeve to include a UDC on the Galaxy S26, leaks we’ve previously discussed suggest that Samsung is unlikely to add an under-display camera to the Galaxy S series for the next two or three years. Well, it seems like those two or three years may never arrive. In fact, Samsung appears to be planning to ditch the UDC once and for all.
Fold 7 will likely keep the UDC, but what about after?
According to a Korean leaker and blogger yeux1122’s post on Naver, although the tech giant will still use UDC for the next Galaxy model (which we assume refers to the next iteration of the Fold series, the Galaxy Z Fold 7), it might move in a different direction after that (via SamMobile).
The leaker further claims that Samsung isn’t able to improve the UDC’s “cost-effectiveness” and other aspects either. Ultimately, this means that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 might go back to its roots and return to a regular display camera hole on the main panel.
The interesting part is, while the UDC certainly makes the Fold series stand out from the rest, this isn’t all that surprising. Last year, Samsung released a limited-edition Fold, the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, which was launched only in South Korea and China.
This edition wasn’t like the rest and included several changes that fans had been requesting, yet didn’t change the essence of the Z Fold’s concept. As you may have figured, one of these changes was a regular camera. Given that Samsung has already tested this out before, it’s a clear-cut hint that the company is capable of ditching UDC and can certainly do so.
A Galaxy Z Fold 7 leak that surfaced in March stated that the next iteration of the foldable will have an improved under-display camera, which further solidifies the tipster’s claim of not ditching UDC for the next foldable, at least not just yet.
Android Authority has explicitly mentioned that it’s worth taking any leak from this tipster with a grain of salt, since he doesn’t always source his reports. However, given that this new leak doesn’t conflict with any we’ve seen recently, and in fact, backs them up, it seems a bit more credible this time around.
