Apple to bring 24-megapixel UDC to iPhone Fold… Enhancing technological sophistication

Apple could include a 24-megapixel under-display camera (UDC) in next year’s iPhone Fold, enabling a fully all-screen design without a dynamic island or notch, according to a JPMorgan report. Such a design innovation is highly anticipated by consumers and will be an important indicator of how quickly the expensive UDC technology will proliferate in the premium smartphone market.

Samsung introduced the world’s first UDC in the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in 2021 and kept the 4-megapixel camera on the inside screen until the Z Fold 6. However, consumer satisfaction was not high due to poor image quality and lack of cost-effectiveness, and China’s BOE filed two UDC patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung Display in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in May and July. In the end, Samsung put the UDC on hold for its latest Galaxy Z Fold 7 and kept the punch-hole method, a strategic choice that industry observers believe was based on legal and technical risks.

   Apple combined high transmittance new materials, high pixel sensors, and AI-based image restoration technology to achieve a full all-screen form factor with high-resolution photography and Touch ID. This process will inevitably raise costs due to complex panel processes, lower yields, and increased chipset computational resources, but the idea is to differentiate itself through a “full-screen experience.

 UDC technology is a key factor in realizing full screen, which allows for an aesthetic appearance by not placing cameras on top of the display. However, as light passes through multiple display layers, diffraction, scattering, and attenuation occur, resulting in noise, blurring, flaring, and poor transmittance, leading to practical problems such as poor photo quality and failed face recognition.

To solve these problems, Samsung Display is using AI-based image restoration technology to correct noise from the camera under the display and improve face recognition accuracy, and is currently verifying its performance in real-world environments, announcing a related paper at SID 2025.

At SID 2025, TCL China Star Optoelectronics (CSOT) announced the design of a 4K Real RGB OLED medium-sized panel with Camera Under Panel (CUP) technology. By relocating the pixel circuitry to a bezel section outside the camera area, the CUP technology achieves 85.8% camera aperture, 13.8% transmittance at 550nm, and 1:1 luminance uniformity between CUP and normal pixels. In the future, the company plans to apply colorless PI substrates and COE structures to increase the transmittance to over 22% and reduce reflectance.

As UDC technology becomes more mature through software and hardware design optimization, it is expected to spread from foldable phones to medium-sized displays such as tablets and laptops, beyond mobile. The era of the “invisible camera” for a full-screen experience is just around the corner.

Changho Noh,  Senior Analyst at UBI Research  (chnoh@ubiresearch.com)

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