Oppo's new tech brings eye-popping zoom to smartphone cameras

Prior to its event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, China's Oppo — currently the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world — promised to shake the world of smartphone photography with its "5x" technology. 

Now, we know what Oppo was referring to: A 5x lossless zoom, previously unheard of on a smartphone (unless it had a huge, bulging lens on the back). 

Oppo's technology consists of two lenses. One is fairly standard, and another is what Oppo calls a "periscope" lens — a horizontally-positioned telescope lens that gets its light through a prism, similar to the way a submarine periscope works. The entire setup is only 5.7mm thick, meaning it could easily fit on a smartphone with a tiny bump.  Read more...