Oppo's under-display camera has been shown off in detail at Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. Although there is no public timetable for its release, Oppo says it will appear in a flagship Oppo device "in the near future". 

We first wrote about the innovation at the beginning of this month, when Opoo and Xiaomi's Twitter accounts both teased notchless devices with under-display camera tech within minutes of each other. 

Oppo has now talked about the camera properly and we'll be seeing a lot of these over the next couple of years - they will enable the next generation of devices to have completely edge-to-edge displays yet still have front cameras and face unlock. 

Oppo is calling its version Under-Screen Camera (USC) and predictably it uses a customised camera module designed to capture more light. But will you see the camera under the display at all? Some preview pics taken by Engadget (link in Chinese) suggest you can see the camera at times lurking underneath the screen. 

And there are other issues to be ironed out as you might expect - especially in terms of image quality. Oppo says there's now a screen layer that helps with the transfer of light through the display. But it has had to employ a new software algorithm involved to remove haze and correct the white balance of images.

While this sounds like a bit of a compromise, we should probably remember it's just the selfie camera - you'll still take your masterpiece shots on the rear cam.  

Oppos under-display camera is coming to a phone shortly image 2
Oppo

Oppo has experimented with several different camera designs including teardrop notches as seen on the Oppo RX17 Pro (and Oppo sister brand OnePlus' 6T and 7), the slde-up camera seen on the Oppo Find X and the 'shark-fin' pop-up as seen on the Oppo Reno series.

At the same event Oppo also announced its own communication tech that would enable people to chat between phones in locations where there's no cellular access or Wi-Fi. Oppo thinks MeshTalk could be used between devices where cellular networks are too congested - like in a stadium - or where there is no traditional signal. We don't know much else, such as when it might come to Oppo handsets or if it will be restricted to Oppo devices. 

The company is really trying to press on in Europe - especially in the light of Huawei's woes - and has sponsored the Cricket World Cup, Wimbledon and other events as it looks to get its brand better known in countries like the UK. The Reno 5G is also one of EE's 5G launch devices.