The iPhone Camera Control button was a failure – so Apple is eyeing up Samsung's under-display camera

It looks like Apple is going back to the drawing board with a camera technology that has thus far eluded it: the under-display camera (UDC).

I'm by no means alone when I say that the iPhone 16 launch was a disaster, from the vaporware that is Apple Intelligence to the poorly implemented Camera Control button.

Apple, it seems, is also aware of the situation, and is eager to find its new killer app for the next wave of iPhones. And perhaps it has found it, by following in the footsteps of phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 with its invisible selfie camera.

Apple's implementation, however, may not be for a selfie camera but instead for facial recognition – which would still reduce the cutout required for the front-facing cameras.

"Well, I checked the Apple supply chain a few days ago," wrote tipster Digital Chat Station on Chinese social network Weibo (by way of SamMobile).

"The iPhone 18 Pro / 18 Pro Max is indeed testing 3D faces under the screen, with a single HIAA [hole in activation area] hole; the iPhone 18/18 Air is a regular 2+1 hole…"

​​If true, this is an interesting strategic inversion; it had previously been reported that Apple would roll out the technology to base models, starting with the iPhone 17 / Plus, before bringing it to the high end with the iPhone 18 Pro / Max.

While Samsung has been the only company to make a real go of UDC tech thus far, it's far from the only manufacturer to have explored the idea.

Xiaomi patented its version of the tech in 2019, with plenty of players following suit from Microsoft in 2020 to Google in 2023. And while a couple of Chinese brands have brought the feature to market, there's been one tiny problem: "the camera sucked".

By using the tech for facial recognition, rather than as an actual selfie camera, Apple would get around the image quality issue. And it's adding a new wrinkle, by giving its own UDC a light source – believed to be the infrared used by Face ID.

Whether or not this rumor turns out to be true, there's no doubt that Apple needs to do something for the next iPhones. The 17 has a lot of heavy lifting to do, if confidence is to be restored. I'm gagging for a new phone, Apple – just give me one worth buying!

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