Photo credit: Jon Russell, under Creative Commons license

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker, has said that it’ll formally kickstart mass production of smartphones with under-display cameras beginning next year. Making such smartphones seems to be Xiaomi’s next bet to bolster its business in the premium smartphone market segment. Xiaomi is doubling down on this market and even saw its sales of premium smartphones priced at €300 or above go up by 99% year-over-year, as indicated by its second-quarter financial results.

Xiaomi’s under-display cameras are made possible by disguising a phone’s front camera under its screen without tampering with the edge-to-edge display effect. The company has already developed prototypes but now wants to take it further to mass production. Selling phones with under-display cameras could be a significant differential for Xiaomi in a very crowded smartphone market, with the company is set to begin producing them by next year.