Xiaomi Mi 7 Leak Shows Apple Face ID-Inspired Module

The Xiaomi Mi 7 is rumored to be the first Android phone with 3D facial recognition that’s similar to the Apple iPhone X. Now an alleged leaked render has popped up showing what Xiaomi’s front-facing camera system looks like.

The render for Xiaomi’s 3D facial recognition module was spotted on the Chinese social media website Weibo. The render shows that the Mi 7 will have a notch on its display and it will house Xiaomi’s 3D facial recognition module. At a glance, the render looks very similar to how Apple introduced the TrueDepth camera system that makes Face ID possible on the iPhone X.

Starting from the left side, Xiaomi’s camera system appears to have an infrared camera. This will likely be used to improve face detection when the Mi 7 is being used in low-light conditions. Right next to that seems to be the main front-facing camera. In the middle of the module is presumed to be the earpiece speaker and on it’s right is what appears to be an unspecified rectangular component.

The right side of the module comes with a square shaped component that resembles Apple’s dot projector that’s on the iPhone X. Phone Arena speculates that this might be Xiaomi’s own take on the same kind of technology. The last component in the module is circular, but it’s difficult to say what exactly it is. It looks like a sensor of some kind that has a very tiny lens. The component is far too big to be a proximity sensor, but it seems to be too small to be a secondary camera of some kind.

Last month, it was reported that the Xiaomi Mi 7 will be the first Android phone to arrive with 3D-sensing technology that’s similar to the iPhone X. The phone was originally supposed to launch in early 2018, but Xiaomi decided to delay the phone’s release to incorporate the 3D facial recognition technology.

Xiaomi allegedly had low success rates with its new technology, but it may have already solved its issues thanks to the inclusion of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor. A lot of other Android phones already offer facial recognition, but their technology only relies on the front-facing camera and Google’s software solution on Android. A 3D-sensing camera module is believed to be far more secure.

The Xiaomi Mi 7 is rumored to be announced on May 23 and the phone is said to feature 8GB of RAM and, possibly, an in-display fingerprint scanner, according to GSM Arena.