Samsung Galaxy S22 Camera Hide Might Be Madness

For the past few years we've seen some wild concepts – and even wilder real world smartphone releases – with methods for hiding cameras. The issue was that the smartphone's front-facing display required a big bezel. Notches, punch-holes, and mechanical bits to move the camera were all delivered on real devices. This week, Samsung revealed a solution the likes of which might... be too wild for the real world.

The next big hype piece in smartphone display technology is the semi-transparent display. This solution allows a front-facing camera to remain out of sight and functional. But the first versions of this solution suffer from one of two issues: faded photos or a visible camera upon closer inspection. Even with the solutions already released on real-world phones, the cons outweigh the pros.

With the Samsung WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office) listing revealed this week, Samsung showed a different approach. With devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro, the camera was mounted in a mechanical bit that popped up from the top of the phone. With Samsung's approach, a secondary display is mounted to a mechanical part that moves inside the smartphone. With this system, the camera is hidden behind a display panel that can move down and out of the way.

If this concept ever makes it to the real world, the reparability of the device will almost certainly be more than an end-user would be willing to bear. If Samsung were to release a phone like this, they'd need to ensure the contraption were able to work at least as long as the expected life span of the rest of the phone. The cost of this might well be more than the most extreme cost an end-user would be willing to spend – it might be madness!