In an age when fingerprint scanners are standard in premium flagship smartphones as well as low-cost budget phones, Vivo is going a step further in revolutionising the technology. Rumours have followed Apple and Samsung for months now about integrating biometric sensor under the display of their flagship smartphones, but a new competitor has made this fantasy a reality.
China-based smartphone manufacturer, Vivo, has demonstrated the future of fingerprint scanning technology that sits under the display of the smartphone powered by Qualcomm. This new tech, followed by several rumours, will make physical home buttons and rear-mounted fingerprint scanning modules obsolete.
Vivo showed off its Under Display Sensor – first of its kind – at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017. According to the company, the sensor can scan through glass, aluminium and OLED deeper than the existing technology in the market. To be precise, Vivo Under Display can penetrate 1.3mm of OLED, 525μm of aluminium or 800μm of glass, Mashable reported.
The new sensor by Vivo is also designed to work with wet fingers, but the company is already working on the next-gen variant that will work underwater.
By launching this new technology, Vivo has raced ahead of giants like Apple and Samsung. The upcoming iPhone 8 was expected to be the first smartphone fingerprint scanner under the display, and it may well be true if Vivo fails to commercially launch before Apple.
The demo of Vivo Under Display was on a prototype device, which we are unsure of when it will hit the market. Qualcomm, however, said that the new solution can be integrated into devices powered by Snapdragon 660 and 630 chipsets. The chip maker also revealed that the commercial availability of the new sensors in smartphones can be expected in the first half of 2018.
Hands-on videos show that the technology is perfected to work effortlessly, albeit not as snappy as the current fingerprint sensors. If companies like Samsung and Apple are to integrate this tech, the sensors must be fool-proof.
Are you interested in smartphones with fingerprint sensors under the display or content with the current standards? Let us know in the comments below.
