I love to dig through my cupboard to use old phones now and again, and I recently rediscovered the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro (also known as the Redmi K20 Pro). This ~$500 phone arguably set the standard for affordable flagships in some markets back in 2019, but the most notable thing about it was the fact that it packed a pop-up selfie camera. And simply using the Xiaomi phone again made me realize how much I miss this feature on modern smartphones.
Sure, we’ve got phones with under-display selfie cameras today, but as cool as this modern solution is, I still miss the previous concealed camera option. Pop-up sensor tech still feels as futuristic and fun to me as it did when I saw the first phone with it back in 2018. There is something really cool about seeing the selfie camera extend and retract from the phone’s body like a periscope.