One of Apple’s camera parts suppliers, LG Innotek, will showcase a new type of under-display camera (UDC) at next year’s CES 2026 trade show, which will be held from January 6 to January 9. Unfortunately, this specific component will be used in automobiles, but that should not prevent the company from transitioning this technology and applying it to smartphones, because it has one impressive feature that would be ideal to use in Apple’s iPhone 20, which has been reported to offer a truly ‘bezel-less’ experience.

Current-generation UDCs can degrade an image’s quality by as much as 30 percent; LG Innotek’s latest solution helps retain more than 99 percent of quality

The Korean manufacturer has been reported to be one of Apple’s suppliers of the UDC that will be found in the iPhone 20, and with the company announcing a significantly improved technology, a possibility exists that these sensors can be shrunk down and embedded behind a smartphone’s display. The latest camera can improve an image’s quality using AI, but with a maximum resolution of 1.5 megapixels, it is insufficient to use in the iPhone 20 or any other handset that aspires to offer a ‘full screen’ experience.

Thankfully, The Elec reports that, where older UDCs degrade image quality by 30 percent because the OLED panel obscures the camera’s field of view, LG Innotek has overcome this limitation with AI-based image quality restoration technology. Employing various algorithms, such as deblurring and denoising, the quality of a damaged image starts to be restored in real-time. LG Innotek states that its under-display camera can produce quality that is more than 99 percent equivalent to videos taken without a display.

As for why LG Innotek has only developed a 1.5MP camera, it is due to increased reliability when found in vehicles. Since automobiles are always at risk of a fatal accident, the total resolution was reduced to boost longevity. Based on this statement, LG Innotek voluntarily downgraded the resolution, suggesting that it has the tools to develop a capable UDC solution for Apple’s iPhone 20.

The California-based giant’s iPhone Fold is rumored to feature an under-display camera, so it will be interesting to see if it is based on the technology introduced by LG Innotek. For the iPhone 18 lineup, Apple is said to be testing in-screen Face ID technology, meaning that the flagships arriving next year could have a punch-hole front-facing camera, making it the first steps towards achieving a bezel-less display.

Given that LG Innotek is one of Apple’s long-term suppliers, it can fulfill its lucrative customer’s requirements by providing high-end UDC units, and since we have two years to see this technology in action on an iPhone 20, Apple has plenty of time to refine it.

News Source: The Elec

Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.