Smartphone cameras in a laptop?

[waronthemoon1]

Why don't huge companies like Samsung or Apple, who make both laptops and smartphones, put nice camera modules in the laptops? Is it too expensive for them? Or just a terrible Idea? I feel face ID or Iris scanners wouldn't be too bad on laptops. Is there a way to mod a smartphone camera piece into a laptop's front-facing camera placement?

[zassou]

1. different usage. some people use front facing camera on the phone more than the rear one. you know, narcissist. some phone even put heavy filters to make the user look good on selfies. that is some of the selling point. no need to buy expensive make ups, just a 150 usd phone with built in photoshop. while the webcam on a laptop is for video calls only, you probably dont need to look good on it.
2. cost measure. you can buy webcam modules by the weight. nuff said.
3. r&d cost. webcam still uses usb interface, they are complete, plug-n-play unit, just like other clamp-on webcams despite they looks like a lens on a pcb with a ribbon cable attached. look closely you'll find they have 5 wires, that's usb. where as phone camera is just a sensor and a lens mounted together, no controller on it, so it's not a complete system.
4. laptop manufacturing, and to pc industry as a whole is very low on margin. some people change their phone on half-a-year basis, how often do you change your laptop? therefore suppliers make standardised webcam modules by large numbers for dell, hp, lenovo, acer, clevo etc. and these brands could save quite a lot of resources when designing chassis for new laptop models.
5. if you need really good image, you could buy a logitech c902 and the like. hell you can even hook up a 4K capturing setup using cameras with hdmi output and connect it to a capturing card with usb 3.0 port. sometime is even costly-er to not put a webcam module in your laptop, it's just standardised solution to solve a basic need, and it's dirt cheap so why not?

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, waronthemoon1 said:

Why don't huge companies like Samsung or Apple, who make both laptops and smartphones, put nice camera modules in the laptops? Is it too expensive for them? Or just a terrible Idea?

The short answer is because the average person just doesn't give a shit about the quality of their built-in Webcam.

 

Smartphone cameras are high quality now due to two main reasons:

1. Taking photos, and replacing a separate "point and shoot" camera as your primary camera

2. Taking videos, replacing the need to buy a dedicated camcorder.

 

Neither of those things are things people use their webcams for. People use their webcams for Skype, basically. For those who actually need a decent webcam, they'll buy a USB one, typically.

13 hours ago, waronthemoon1 said:

I feel face ID or Iris scanners wouldn't be too bad on laptops. Is there a way to mod a smartphone camera piece into a laptop's front-facing camera placement?

Edit: "FaceID" already exists on most medium to high end laptops now - Windows Hello with a proper IR scanner capable camera. My 2018 HP Spectre x360 has one. As does my new work laptop (HP Zbook).

 

In terms of modding a smartphone camera? Physically, sure, you could mod one to fit. You'd need proper drivers though, which likely means writing your own custom driver.

[Rodinski]

Considering how cheap even a decent censor is, I'm honestly surprised too.  Some companies (like ASUS for example) have a phone division too.  They could take their front facing cameras and put them in a laptop and vastly improve image quality on their higher end laptops.  It boggles my mind too.

 

Honestly, given the low quantity of VGA and 1.3 MP cameras, I'd imagine the cost of the low quality cameras would be more expensive than just taking the same sensor out of a budget phone.  A 5MP front facing camera connected through the USB controller shouldn't cost them any significant amount to produce.

[zassou]

7 hours ago, Rodinski said:

Considering how cheap even a decent censor is, I'm honestly surprised too.  Some companies (like ASUS for example) have a phone division too.  They could take their front facing cameras and put them in a laptop and vastly improve image quality on their higher end laptops.  It boggles my mind too.

 

Honestly, given the low quantity of VGA and 1.3 MP cameras, I'd imagine the cost of the low quality cameras would be more expensive than just taking the same sensor out of a budget phone.  A 5MP front facing camera connected through the USB controller shouldn't cost them any significant amount to produce.

1. i checked on some chinese wholesale sites, a dual unit module(front and back, not new, dismantled from e-waste) for a low end xiaomi phone costs 10 usd or so. while a 1920*1280 usb webcam module costs about 2 usd.
2. asus dont design their phone, they bought design from oem, or with lightly customisation. and their phone division is dying.
3. a 5mp webcam module with auto focus costs 10~15 usd.

you can do your own math.