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The iPhone Duo is finally here as Apple’s first foldable phone. It also ships with the company’s first under-display selfie camera, located under the inner screen. This isn’t the first foldable phone with an under-display selfie camera, as Samsung had this on its Folds for a few generations before skipping the feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Fold 8 series.
Under-display cameras have historically delivered lower-quality images than even budget Android phones. So is Apple making a huge mistake by adopting it, even if the company claims it’s ideal for video calls?
I decided to pit the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, one of the most recent phones with an under-display selfie camera, against the $1,900 Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the £500 (~$667) Redmi Note 17 Pro Max. For what it’s worth, the REDMAGIC has a 16MP under-screen sensor, compared to the Z Fold 8’s 10MP snapper and the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max’s 32MP sensor.
One of the biggest issues with under-display selfie cameras is that the amount of light reaching the camera sensor itself is drastically reduced compared to a conventional selfie camera. The light has to pass between the display’s pixels to reach the camera, after all. Shooting in broad daylight is therefore the best-case scenario for these types of cameras.
A closer look shows that, even in ideal lighting, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s under-screen camera simultaneously smears away details and over-sharpens the scene. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 offers far superior details and more natural processing. Just look at my skin, stubble, and eyebrows.
The REDMI image, on the other hand, is quite splotchy on closer inspection and is a clear step down from Samsung’s phone in terms of detail. But at least I can see my pores in the photo. It’s not great for a £500 phone, but it’s still better than the REDMAGIC shot.
Backlit scenes are another historical challenge for phone cameras, even in otherwise great lighting. The good news here is that the REDMAGIC phone exposed my face without blowing out the brightly lit background. The bad news is that the phone cranked the HDR to neon levels — just look at the retina-burning trees. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is also guilty of oversaturating things, while the REDMI device tamed the background accordingly.
Looking at my face, it’s clear that the REDMAGIC washed out my skin while Samsung and REDMI’s phones offered a more accurate rendition. And that’s before we zoom in. Samsung is a clear winner here, capturing a ton of resolvable detail, with the Note 17 Pro Max in a distant second place. Meanwhile, the REDMAGIC made my face look like wax, stripping away any semblance of texture.
It’s easy to take decent photos with an under-display camera in good lighting and outdoors, but things take a clear turn for the worse in poor indoor lighting. I took these photos in the corner of my office, which is the darkest room in the house. Both the REDMAGIC 11 Pro and the REDMI Note 17 Pro Max lack fine-texture detail due to aggressive noise reduction. Furthermore, the REDMI image has a colder-than-expected white balance and is a little blurry. Unfortunately, the REDMAGIC is still the clear loser here.
You don’t need to zoom in to see that the REDMAGIC fared very poorly. There is a ton of ugly purple fringing on the wall on the right of the image, as well as on my bag strap. It also looks like the REDMAGIC phone used a mix of sharpening and AI processing to reconstruct text in the background, but it just looks like an absolute mess. By contrast, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 image strikes a great balance between noise reduction and texture preservation, and it didn’t wipe away my stubble and paint it back on again. Furthermore, the text is more legible on the game boxes in the background.
The poor light transmittance of under-display selfie cameras is on show in the dusk scene above. The REDMAGIC’s picture is clearly darker, for one, as my black shirt is effectively swallowed by the background. We can also see fringing and haloing on my shirt as the phone desperately tries to sharpen anything. On the upside, the REDMAGIC didn’t blow out the sky.
We don’t really have to zoom in to see that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 captured a brighter, more detailed face. But the comparison above nevertheless drives this fact home, as the REDMAGIC made my face a smeared mess. I’d easily take the Galaxy Z Fold 8 image.
What about extreme darkness, then? The night-time scene above was lit solely by a single light in the backyard. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 was the runaway winner, as it captured a brighter, more detailed snap with noise kept in check. I can clearly see the wall in the background and the fish on my shirt. It’s not the best selfie in the world, but loved ones won’t have to turn up their phone brightness or pinch in when I send this photo to them.
The REDMAGIC and REDMI snaps are both pretty awful, but at least the REDMI phone didn’t give me a disembodied head. Furthermore, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro’s photo has an unsightly, dark green cast. Needless to say, I really wouldn’t want to send either photo to anyone, but I’d send the REDMI snap before the REDMAGIC one.
When I first used the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra and its under-display camera back in 2022, I quickly realized it produced weird light artifacts in certain extreme scenarios. More specifically, you could see different colored light patterns or a grid-like pattern when there was a strong light source in the picture. I’m therefore glad to see that the REDMAGIC 11 Pro doesn’t suffer from this issue to the same extent. Manufacturers are clearly addressing some long-standing weaknesses related to the technology.
I’m also glad to see that these newer under-screen cameras can occasionally duke it out with cheap Android phones, as early under-display cameras lagged behind even budget devices. Unfortunately, our testing shows there’s still a giant gulf in picture quality between these cameras and flagship phones with conventional selfie shooters. It’s no wonder that Samsung ditched this technology after the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
So even if Apple insists the iPhone Duo’s under-screen camera is for video calls, you shouldn’t be surprised if it takes crappy pictures when unfolded.
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