Vivo Unveils First Ever Smartphone With An In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
Vivo, one of the most famous Chinese smartphone maker in its native country, has done something incredible. Teaming up with Synaptics, it has unveiled the first-ever smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor that might be the answer to reducing bezels, shaky facial recognition technology and the inconvenience of rear-facing fingerprint sensors.
The technology is known as Clear ID and lets users OEMs embed a fingerprint sensor under the display. Synaptics has claimed that it has a failure rate of 1 in 50,000 which, for a first gen product, is admirable. Early reviews of the device are in and mostly paint a positive picture. People are praising the accuracy of the sensor while it is slower than other fingerprint sensors found on devices like the OnePlus 5T, it is hard to complain when the process feels so futuristic.
The in-display fingerprint sensor sits between the mainboard and the OLED panel where it illuminates the finger and then processes the beams of light. Hence, this technology will not work on LCD panels as the sensor looks through the dots of an OLED panel, and then recognises the fingerprint.
Alex Feng, Senior VP in Vivo, said in a press release that this technology is the solution to the industry’s challenge of providing a more convenient authentication experience. The smartphone is ready for mass production and should be announced in “early 2018.”
While the device might not be available in a lot of markets, it marks the beginning of more smartphone makers integrating this technology into their upcoming flagship devices. There are rumours already that Doogee V will also have a screen embedded fingerprint sensor and a design similar to the iPhone X.
With bezels becoming almost negligible, the implementation of this technology will be crucial for Vivo and other OEMs to keep producing smartphones with a front-facing fingerprint sensor.
