The company that made the first commercially released smartphone with a pop-up camera was Vivo. Its Vivo NEX, launched in June 2018, concealed the front-facing camera inside the body and raised it mechanically when needed.
The design solved a major problem in the race toward bezel-less screens: where to put the selfie camera without adding a notch. On the NEX, the 8-megapixel camera emerged from the top edge in under a second, then retracted when the camera app was closed.
Vivo had previewed the concept as the APEX at Mobile World Congress 2018, but the APEX was not a normal retail smartphone. The NEX turned the idea into a consumer product. Oppo’s Find X also used a motorized camera module later that month, which is why the two companies are sometimes confused in discussions of the technology.
The NEX also featured a 6.59-inch Ultra FullView display, an in-display fingerprint reader, and an earpiece solution built into the screen. Its moving camera was inventive, though mechanical parts introduced durability and dust concerns.