We first saw the pop up selfie camera on phones in 2018 with the Vivo Next. This was a workaround to the notch design that was prevalent at the time. They were initially found in the upper midrange smartphone market, but later on trickled down. Currently, the cheapest phone you can get with this type of camera is the Y9 Prime 2019. OPPO even has a side mounted pop up camera for some reason.
It seems now we will be able to see pop cameras in cheaper phones. According to My Drivers, Infinix will launch a phone with a pop up selfie camera in February 2020. They also say that the phone will be less than 10,000 rupees (Kshs 14,000) which is a price they love to target.
The publication also said that TECNO will also launch a phone with a pop up selfie camera shortly after Infinix launches theirs. This will also be priced under 10,000 rupees (Kshs 14,000) just like the rumoured Infinix phone.
This is not a surprise at all. TECNO and Infinix always finds ways of incorporating features that we have seen in more expensive phones to their inexpensive smartphones. Last year, TECNO added a hole punch display to the budget Camon 12 Air. We have also seen wide angle cameras in both Infinix and TECNO phones.
It seems like 2020 will be another interesting year for budget smartphones. Transsion is still the leading smartphone manufacturer in Africa where they have a combined smartphone market share of 36.2%. They have to keep up with latest trends to maintain their lead and this shows their intent of maintaining the status quo.
