Lenovo announces world's first laptop with an under display camera

(Image credit: Lenovo)

Lenovo has revealed a new laptop at this year's CES trade show that features an under display camera. Under display cameras have long been the holy grail for phone and laptop manufacturers, as they eliminate the need for screen notches or punch holes. However, implementing such a camera design is inherently difficult, as placing a semi-opaque screen directly in front of a camera severely impacts its recording quality. The multiple thin-film layers that constitute an OLED display, along with its pixel grid, not only diffract light passing through to the under display camera, they also cause potential color casts. Furthermore, the screen's partial opacity restricts light entering a camera, leading to increased image noise.

But Lenovo, in conjunction with Visionary.ai and Intel, has managed to overcome these hurdles to create the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i: the world's first CUD (camera-under-display) laptop, with a 14" 4k 120Hz PureSight Pro OLED display and super-slim screen bezels. The secret to successfully implementing an under display camera has been to create real-time AI video enhancement algorithms that compensate for the image quality issues caused by positioning the camera behind the screen. The laptop's Image Processing Unit in its Intel Core Ultra 200V series processor is able to enhance the under display camera's video recording in real time, with no perceivable lag in video calls or while streaming. This includes applying AI de-noising technology to compensate for the low light transmission reaching the camera sensor, which would otherwise be particularly problematic in dimly lit environments.

"Delivering sharp imaging with a camera under the display was a challenge that seemed impossible just a few years ago. Our breakthrough in leveraging AI to achieve real-time, stable denoising under challenging conditions has made it a reality."

Yoav Taieb, Visionary.ai CTO

We don't yet know when the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i will go on sale, or how much it is likely to cost.

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Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.

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