In recent years, smartphone designs are becoming thinner. There is a new trend of slim, sexy hardware and now no one wants to buy heavy, bulky smartphones. Notches have been there for some time but with time, it also gotten slimmer and now manufactures are moving towards a full edge-to-edge design with no notches. So where are they going to place the front-camera on all these devices?

Over the last year, we seen display screens with less notches, holes, or pop-up cameras, but now it is time for hidden selfie camera. Oppo and Xiamoi are doing just that by placing the camera under the display itself. Today in a tweet, Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi showed off its exciting new design. Yesterday Oppo released a short video on a smartphone snapping a photo with an in-display that you can't see. To make the point clear, a finger was posed in front of the camera in the end of the video and you can see a blurry image of the finger on the screen.

Xiamoi also posted its own video to display a smartphone with an in-display selfie-camera. In the video the upcoming phone was compared with the Xiaomi Mi 9 side by side. The prototype has a full display with no cut-out, no notch or pop-up camera but it can still take a selfie just like a regular smartphone. Oppo didn't reveal much about the technology but Xiamoi get one step further by explaining the whole mechanism. The camera features a 20MP camera and a transparent display that doubles as the camera lens and allows more light into the lens to enable the perfect selfies, but when the display is off, the camera goes invisible against the rest of the black surface of the screen. These are just prototypes and there hasn't any real demo done by the companies in public so far. But we can hope for some of the best technologies to experience this year.

Since OnePlus has started to create smartphones, it has been loved by Android users all around the world. Its rapid growth is a clear sign of its positive impact on the industry. With time, it is getting even better and manufacturing phones after listening to the feedback of its customers. With OnePlus 7 Pro, company has entered into the true hyper-premium category. It is bigger, faster, and more expensive than any other OnePlus devices before. The company has put everything they could, added extra features, create an astonishing design and it also shows in the price tag. The OnePlus 7 Pro feels like competing directly with Samsung and Huawei.

It is an edge-to-edge Samsung's infinity-like display that has ditched the notch for a mechanical pop-up selfie camera. The new high resolution display looks amazing. But the key selling feature for this device isn't camera - it is battery. The device comes with a 30W charger which isn't as fast as Huawei but does close to it. It can charge your device really fast, and it keeps the phone from getting too hot by converting the voltage to 5V in the charger itself, rather than handled by the device. The phone also comes with a clear case.

The camera comes out really silent and fast. You can even use it for face unlock. OnePlus claims that it takes 0.53 seconds for the camera to emerge from the casing and 0.65 seconds to take a picture, match, and compare your face for unlocking the device. The camera body is made of soft touch glass as the OnePlus 6T. Although it feels more like metal than glass. The phone has come in three colors: Nebula Blue, Mirror Grey, and Almond Red. For connectivity it uses USB-C port. There is no micro-SD card expansion slot or headphone jack in the device though. The device has a 6.67-inch display that is great for watching movies or if you want to play games on it. The resolution is 3120 x 1440 Quad HD+ with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 516 ppi pixel density and 90Hz AMOLED display. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Octa-core and Adreno 640 GPU. The memory is 8GB or 12GB of RAM with 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.0 Storage.

On Friday, OnePlus released a teaser in a tweet for its upcoming OnePlus 7 Pro phone. The company dunked its smartphone in awater bucket despite the fact that the phone doesn't have an official water-resistance IP rating. And it is trying to show that even without the un-necessary rating phone has water resistance.

The company has taken a stance on IP ratings for resistance to water and dust. It suggests that getting the IP rating isn't cheap. To obtain official water and dust resistance the companies have to spend money and the smartphone manufacturers are transferring that cost down to its customers.
OnePlus seems confident enough that the OnePlus 7 Pro will have enough resistance against water that it can easily withstand a good water-bucket dunk. Still, the company doesn't suggest you to intentionally expose its upcoming smartphone to water. The fine print in the video says "Water resistant under optimal test conditions.

OnePlus makes no guarantees regarding water/liquid resistance." This means that if you are exposing your OnePlus 7 to water, you are responsible for any damage and the company isn't entitled to pay any money for the repair or bound to replace the phone if it does more harm to the phone.
This kind of written warning isn't a new thing. You may find the same printed text on phones that have a high official IP rating. Apple's support page has a disclaimer about any water damage which says, "if liquid damages an iPhone or iPod (for example, coffee or a soft drink), the service for the liquid damage isn't covered by the Apple One-Year Limited Warranty."

You have to buy AppleCare Plus for $6 per month and pay another $100 for the repair, which is what you have to pay even if the iPhone doesn't have an official IP rating. To be fair, the official IP rating is just for peace of mind. In the case of OnePlus Pro 7 you have to take its word for it.