ZTE’s new Axon 20 5G smartphone will have an under-display camera

China’s ZTE has been bruised in the western markets since it got blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2018, but the company is still producing innovative smartphones. 

Its next flagship smartphone, the ZTE Axon 20 5G, will be the first mass-produced 5G smartphone with an under-display camera according to ZTE. This means that the phone will be just screen on the front, with no notches or punch-hole selfie cameras to spoil the view.

Under-display cameras aren’t completely new; Oppo showed off its version of this technology in June 2019 (it was actually a combination of several technologies, including the use of a highly transparent material for the phone’s display as well as zoning, which means controlling the pixels located above the camera to allow light to pass through the display when needed). 

However, no company has actually started selling a smartphone with an under-display camera on the mass market yet. 

ZTE didn’t share many other details about the upcoming device, except that it supports 5G. Leaked specs on XDA Developers indicates the phone will have a 6.92-inch OLED display, 6/8/12GB of RAM, 64/128/256GB of storage, and a quad rear camera with 64/8/2/2-megapixel resolutions. The under-display selfie camera will likely have a 32-megapixel sensor. 

The ZTE Axon 20 5G will be officially unveiled on Sept. 1 in China.