Oppo thinks retracting camera phones is the next big thing

Oppo plans to end the year on a high note by offering a generous pinch of smartphone innovation. Apart from the rumored folding, the company simply took to Twitter and shared a video of an unreleased phone with a retractable rear camera.

To give you a bit of context, in recent years, the smartphone industry has provided us with selfie cameras that pop up from the top edge, and brands quickly adopted a trade name for them: pop-up camera. However, Oppo seems to have taken the fundamental concept of a pop-up selfie camera module, rotated it 90 degrees, and placed it on the back of a phone.

Most pop-ups are annoying …

But not our self-developed retractable camera! 😉

Explore more at INNO WORLD on 12/14.# OPPOINNODAY2021 pic.twitter.com/33hgJSw8If

& mdash; OPPO (@oppo) December 7, 2021

Will this ever come out?

The Oppo phone in question has no name yet. And surprisingly, it has also eluded the overly keen eyes of leak enthusiasts. That means it’s highly likely a concept phone, but it will all be revealed at the company’s Inno Day event on December 14. The retractable camera definitely catches the eyes, but it’s far from a novel creation. The idea of ​​moving lens elements was borrowed from the point-and-shoot cameras that were all the rage back in the day, but have since lost their appeal as smartphone cameras got better. However, Samsung copied the formula for its Galaxy S4 Zoom in 2013 when it looked more like a camera than a phone due to the thick profile.

The Oppo phone, on the other hand, looks as stylish as any other modern premium phone, and the motion camera element is quite small. It is unclear if the motorized module houses the main snapper or if it is the host of the telephoto camera system. The latter seems to be the case here, and it looks a lot like a replacement for the folded-lens periscope zoom cameras that one gets in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and other camera-centric phones out there. Oppo’s retractable camera also appears to have some fall detection technology in place. The gyro and accelerometer will identify if the phone is in free fall, automatically pulling the camera module inward to avoid any damage.

The time for retractable cameras may be over

The idea is definitely a breath of fresh air, but it is unlikely to be successful. Pop-up cameras were all the rage not so long ago, and almost every brand accepted them except Apple. But they were brittle, they definitely weren’t easy on wallets when it came to repairs, and now they’re a fading fad. They achieved the smartphone industry’s holy grail of a true full-screen experience, but practicality ultimately reigned over aesthetics.

Will Oppo’s retractable camera be a hit or will it meet the same fate as its pop-up camera sister? Only time will tell. Will it make it to a commercially available smartphone? There is also no certainty about that. After all, Oppo made big promises about its rollable phoneBut it got stuck in quality assurance hell and never got into the hands of eager buyers willing to spend a few thousand dollars. And oh now what everyone is building something related to the metaverseOppo is also showing off a virtual avatar tech at its event next week. Hopefully it is not the same destiny like Samsung’s virtual assistant Sam, a little too handsome.

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