Highlights:
Oppo took the stage today at Mobile World Congress 2019 and as promised, it showcased its 10x Lossless Zoom technology. However, that was not all. The company also announced that the new tech will debut in its devices by Q2 this year and showed off a working 5G smartphone. The smartphone maker has partnered with Qualcomm to integrate the latter’s chip in its devices. This means that its 5G enabled handset will ship equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC. As for the reports of Oppo showing off a foldable phone at today’s event, they didn’t pan out.
The Product Manager at Oppo, Chuck Wang, started off the announcements by showcasing some sample shots clicked using the 10x Lossless Zoom tech. He then moved on to explain how the company managed to invent the technology. First off, the new zoom tech comprises of a three sensor system module. There’s a 48MP main camera, a 120-degree ultra wide angle lens and a telephoto lens, all working in tandem to enable capturing images at varying focal lengths. The three lenses enable coverage of an overall focal range between 16mm (via the ultra wide angle lens) to 160mm (with the telephoto lens).
Wang also shared some of the challenges the team faced while building the feature. The first one being the thickness of the camera module, which would have been around 15mm. Oppo says it used a periscopic module to flatten the thickness of the camera module and placed it horizontally. Then, the company used an optical prism to refract light onto the lens system for image formation that enabled the company to reduce the module thickness to 6.76mm. It also introduced D-cut lenses for slimming down the camera setup. There are two Auto Focus motors used in the system, one on the main camera and other on the wide angle lens.
https://twitter.com/oppo/status/1099310721412796416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We all know that zooming for capturing an image introduces noise in an image. To tackle the grain Oppo employed Optical Image Stabilisation on both, the main camera and telephoto lens.
https://twitter.com/oppo/status/1099297477847601157?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Oppo announced that the 10x Lossless Zoom technology is mass production ready, and will debut in Oppo’s next product that is slated to launch in Q2 2019.
Oppo’s primary announcement at the MWC 2019 event was regarding its 10x Lossless zoom technology. However, the company also revealed some details on how it plans to enter the 5G space. The company believes that 5G will provide a boost to ‘Cognitive intelligence’ and will be used for many other applications. Oppo stressed that 5G cloud gaming will go big with 5G as it enables high throughput and low latency “to bring AAA gaming experience” on smartphones. It announced that Breeno, the company’s smart assistant will be made available on Oppo devices by this spring.
The company also showcased its first 5G smartphone but did not reveal any details about it. However, the showcased phone is probably running on the Snapdragon 855 SoC and Qualcomm’s X50 modem. Christian Amon, President of Qualcomm, also took the stage to announce that the two companies will soon bring the first 5G Oppo phone powered by Snapdragon 855 SoC.