It’s inside the phone. And when you want it, it peeks out — in 0.53 seconds, to be precise. I can’t speak for selfie takers, as I rarely ever take selfies, but it seems quick enough to me.
With that said, it might not be quick enough for unlocking the OnePlus 7 Pro with facial recognition. From the lock screen, you have to swipe up to summon the selfie camera from its hiding place, and it takes just that extra bit of time to scan your mug. It makes facial recognition less useful than the in-display fingerprint sensor.
Good thing, then, that the fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 7 Pro’s is good. It’s significantly faster and less frustrating to use than the fancy “ultrasonic” in-display fingerprint sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S10.
The clear concern with a popup camera is durability, especially if it hits the ground after a drop.
Amazingly, the OnePlus 7 Pro can detect the moment it’s dropped — and if the camera is popped up, it’ll automatically scamper back into its hiding place before it hits the ground.
The popup selfie camera, indeed, retracted itself automatically when I gingerly drop-tested the OnePlus 7 Pro from a distance of about two to three feet onto a soft comfy couch.
OnePlus also says the popup selfie camera can withstand up to 300,000 raises. That’s 150 selfies per day for five and half years straight. I’d like to meet the person who takes that many selfies.
The real test, however, will be out in the real world. It’s still one more thing that can potentially break. We’ll have to see how the popup selfie camera design fares over time, as actual consumers get their hands on it.
Anyway, here’s a selfie taken with the popup selfie camera. It looks good to me!
