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Why can’t laptops just get smartphone cameras? Is the BOM impact of a phone camera from 2018 really that high?


Because the sauce is not in the camera, but in the software. I recommend the following article, if not even for reading, just to appreciate how much processing magic is going on: https://vas3k.com/blog/computational_photography/


That can't be... the full picture.

Laptops have a decent amount of compute power available.

If you look at laptop webcams, they are much smaller(and thinner) and have way crappier optics than an iphone camera. And nowhere near the same amount of optics.

Look at this ancient iPhone 6 exploded camera view. Does it look like it's even close to laptop webcams? Let's not even go into the "huge" (in smartphone terms) lenses modern phones have.

https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/iPhone-2...


In that case, my laptop has substantially more computational power than my phone - why can’t it run the same software?


not the bom, it's the screen thickness.

Most laptops screens are much thinner than a smartphone.

That said, i'd gladly have a little camera bump.


Aye - it would probably need to be ruggedized, but a camera pod wouldn’t be the end of the world.


I think the thickness is more the issue. Phones and tablets are way thicker than a laptop screen.




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