What is the most convenient position of the fingerprint scanner for you? For me, I preferred where iPhones have, where Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 had. I feel the position of LG, Galaxy S8 bit awkward. Rather than stretching my index finger, I wish to just press my thumb finger on the bottom of the display. But the scenario has changed, as the design aspect of the smartphones has shifted to bezel-less display.
With the demand of the bezel-less display, the Galaxy S8 had to shift its fingerprint scanner to the rather awkward position on the back of the display. Even OnePlus, to adopt modern design had to shift fingerprint scanner. And one of the biggest tech company Apple had opted for face ID, rather than embedding fingerprint scanner somewhere else. What about the on-screen embedded fingerprint scanner?
Though this is not the solution, companies are working for years to embed the scanner where it should be. There were lots of rumors that, then high-end devices will have embedded fingerprint scanner. But no one has come so close to embed it on-screen. Actually, the technology was there, commercial implementation of the technology was the major issues, which results in no devices launched with the embedded fingerprint scanner.
Here are some pics @anshelsag and I took of the Vivo smartphone with the Synaptics in-display fingerprint reader. The CMOS image sensor is .7mm thick and reads the fingerprint right through the OLED display. The experience was faster than I expected. pic.twitter.com/u1NFpXtFQM
— Patrick Moorhead going to #MWC22 (@PatrickMoorhead) December 14, 2017
Well, the company working on this technology, Synaptics has claimed last week that it has finally solved the problem of embedding fingerprint scanner into displays and will mass produce for the major smartphone manufacturer. Vivo will be one of the first companies working with Synaptics for the on-screen embedded fingerprint scanner. Vivo’s decision to go with Synaptics seems a big blow to Qualcomm because it has been working in this technology for a long time. Even though the Vivo showed off a Qualcomm-powered fingerprint-sensing display prototype earlier this year, but it was noticeably slow.
Analyst Patrick Moorhead detailed his experience with a pre-production Vivo phone equipped with the technology. Moorhead describes the sensor as “fast and simple,” while Synaptics claims it’s twice as fast as 3D facial recognition like Apple’s Face ID — though that’d be a hard thing to realistically measure considering the different mechanisms that each system uses in practice.
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