Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 made a compelling case that folding could be the future, but it was not without its drawbacks. Aside from the price, which is beyond most buyers' budgets, the debut of Samsung's under-screen camera technology received mixed reactions from reviewers and buyers alike.

On the one hand, the technology itself is quite impressive, with the 4MP pinhole camera seamlessly becoming part of the screen when not in use. But on the other, the photographic results were definitely worse than what we are used to with Samsung's front-facing camera.

Now, according to a supply chain source on the Korean blog Naver, next year's Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 will get a "significantly improved" one. According to the blog, Samsung is putting the punch-hole display into mass production, and the Google-translated text explains that "the Fold 4 has a much improved UDC (Under Display Camera) installation."

If true, one would expect the technology to be improved. An earlier report, also from Naver, stated that Samsung may now apply under-screen processing to both the front screen camera and the internal selfie lens; if the improvements are as clear as Naver's report suggests, this could be a good thing, but if not, it could be a major As we found when testing both cameras on the Z Fold 3, the front 10MP camera was significantly better than the 4MP under-screen camera.

You may wonder why you need two selfie cameras on a foldable in the first place. Wouldn't a cleaner solution be to ditch the inferior built-in camera under the screen and give the tablet mode an unobstructed, complete view?

For some, no doubt, but that would undermine the flexibility of Samsung's camera system. The built-in selfie camera, for example, means that it can be opened without having to hold the phone like a laptop.

But other things aside, reducing the number of cameras between generations sounds like a downgrade, even if it actually improves the overall experience. And when you're trying to convince a buyer to shell out $2,000, the last thing you want them to think about is that they'd be better off using the previous generation instead.

Of course, we'll have to wait until we test the Z Fold 4 to make our own judgment - and this rumor may turn out to be untrue - but there's no doubt that this could be good news for Samsung's next-generation foldable flagship It seems likely.