They will be the second BBK company to do so after Oppo.

Realme's in-display camera "demo" phone.

The ZTE Axon 20 was the world's first phone to be completely full screen with no notches, no pop-up cameras, and no dots on the front. It used an in-display camera to hide the front camera. Because it was a first-gen device and one of the first of its kind, the photo quality is subpar, even to midrangers. First-gens are not going to be perfect and it takes some time to develop such a tech. Companies need large budgets and a large-enough R&D to be able to do such a thing. ZTE showed that they can innovate, so others and they too, can improve on the tech.

Multiple companies have already shown their R&D prowess. Vivo was the first company to introduce both the pop-up camera and the in-display fingerprint sensor. HTC was one of the first companies to use a dual camera system and LG was the first company to employ a large 18:9 screen on their phones as well as the pioneer to the very popular ultrawide camera that is still in use today.

In one of the latest patent leaks, Realme is said to be developing its own in-display camera. Because of this patent, Realme has shown that they are large enough to develop their own set of innovations and inventions and may be capable enough to employ their own R&D offices and employees.

As seen from the images above, there are wireframe drawings of how Realme is implementing its own version of the in-display camera, which is still considered a novel concept. These wireframe drawings can be traced back to Realme VP Qi Chase on Weibo, where he teased a device that appears to not have a notch, nor is it even a pop-up camera. The post has now been deleted, but we managed to save the image of the said "in-display camera" phone, as seen from the very top of this article. While Realme constantly releases phones with either a waterdrop or a pop-up notch, they did once release a phone with a pop-up camera called the Realme X. Since then, the company hasn't released a device with a pop-up camera.

Looking back at the wireframe drawings, the selfie camera is nowhere to be seen. As these are drawings or blueprints, the possibility of an actual physical device mass-produced or concept is less likely. As for the rest of the drawings, it appears to be a typical flagship, coming with a triple camera setup, and no physical fingerprint sensor, which suggests it would have an AMOLED screen with an in-display fingerprint sensor; along with a USB-C port and SIM Card tray.

As mentioned earlier Oppo is working on their own iteration of the in-display selfie camera and has already presented a demo. ZTE is improving their version while Vivo and Xiaomi are also experimenting on their own. As two of the four BBK companies are already developing an in-display camera, Realme of course, wanted that piece of the pie. If ever a physical demo device comes out, regardless if it's mass-produced or not, then Realme is showing the world that they are getting big and are no longer just another smartphone company.

Source: The Mobile Hunt