The new iPhone 12 is expected to feature a notch the same size as the iPhone 11. And currently, most Android phones have a punch-hole notch at the top of the display. However, ZTE's new phone introduces a long-awaited feature, a true full-screen design.

A Weibo post by ZTE president Ni Fei effectively announced that the company's upcoming ZTE Axon 20 5G smartphone will be the first device with an "under-screen camera," as reported by Gizmochina.

The screen posted by Fei does not indicate much about the camera, but it does include a reference to a device called the "ZTE A20 5G under-screen camera," suggesting that the phone will feature a camera below the display.

Oppo, another Chinese smartphone maker, was said to be one of the first companies to produce a smartphone with an under-display camera after teasing the technology last year. However, it appears that ZTE has stolen Oppo's thunder.

ZTE did not elaborate on how it made the display with a selfie camera under the display. However, there is speculation that the display panels were supplied by Visionox, which previously announced its readiness to mass produce under-screen camera technology.

Using transparent organic and inorganic materials for the main display and an "industry-first drive circuit and pixel structure design," Visionox has successfully created a camera system that can effectively see through an OLED display. Visionox also uses a series of software algorithms to handle glare and fogging effects.

It is unclear how the performance of these under-display cameras compares to more traditional selfie cameras. However, the ZTE Axon 20 5G appears poised to lead the technology when it arrives later this year or in 2021.

Even if the results from this initial effort are not impressive, there remains hope that other handset makers, including Samsung and Apple, will build on this technology.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is an impressive phone with a large 6.9-inch AMOLED display with a variable refresh rate of 120 Hz. However, its expansive display is still hampered by cutouts for the selfie camera.

According to leaker Ice Universe, Samsung is reportedly considering an under-display camera for the Samsung Galaxy S30 (Galaxy S21). But that was in April, and according to the leak, Samsung is evaluating the "feasibility of the technology."

The display notch introduced in the iPhone X includes a TrueDepth camera that no other company has been able to match, but the resulting notch size has been a source of frustration. And according to the latest rumors, the notch size will remain the same in iPhone 12.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple may introduce an under-display camera system and under-screen Touch ID solution by 2021 for the iPhone 13, but this report is a year old, also predicted that the TrueDepth notch on the iPhone 12 would be reduced.

The OnePlus 7 Pro showed that a pop-up selfie camera could allow for a vast OLED display with a 90 Hz refresh rate that would be a joy to behold. The company took a step back with the OnePlus 8 Pro, which featured a punch-hole camera, but it would not be surprising if the OnePlus 8T Pro uses under-display camera technology.

Regardless of which smartphone maker adopts under-display camera technology after ZTE, the death of the notch and punch hole seems closer than we thought.