With phone makers pushing the bezel out of the door and building devices with stunning glass backs, they strive to refine the aesthetics to attract users. Most of the on-surface components, like the sensors and fingerprint sensor, are now being relocated under the display or into mechanical moving parts.
Well, under-screen fingerprint sensors may be a little slow when compared to capacitive ones but are rapidly evolving with each iteration. Just like the notch, these sensors have started popping up on a myriad of premium mid-range and flagship phones. So, here’s a quick look at the progress to date:
The OnePlus 6T is not here yet, but OnePlus has already confirmed that the latest OnePlus flagship will come with an under-display fingerprint scanner. The OnePlus 6T is expected to come with a Snappdragon 845, up to 8GB of RAM, and 128/256GB of storage options.
Huawei recently launched the Mate 20 Pro alongside the Mate 20 and Mate 20. The Mate 20 Pro, which is also expected to arrive in India soon, features a 6.39-inch OLED display and is powered by Huawei’s flagship Kirin 980 SoC.
The Vivo X20 Plus UD was the first smartphone to sport an in-display fingerprint scanner, thanks to a partnership with Synaptics. It was shown off at CES 2018 in January this year.
4. Vivo X21
Launched as the successor to Vivo X20 Plus UD, this was the Chinese giant’s first mass-market device with an in-display fingerprint scanner. The Vivo X21 was the device that introduced this novel biometric tech to India.
This elegant device, as Porsche Design calls it, debuted alongside Huawei’s P20 series and included not just a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the rear but an under-screen one from Synaptics as well.
Vivo has been the most aggressive adopter of this technology and the Vivo Nex features the third-gen in-display fingerprint sensor. It’s one of the most innovative phones, with an Ultra Full-View display and pop-up front camera, and the internal specs were also flagship grade.
Vivo Nex sports a 6.59-inch AMOLED display and is powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, paired with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB storage. There’s a 12MP+5MP dual rear-camera and 8MP pop-up selfie camera in tow, which is yet another step towards the ‘reduce the bezels’ mission.
As the in-display fingerprint sensor trend started to catch heat, Xiaomi didn’t want to be left behind and included Synaptics’ Clear ID in-display fingerprint sensor into its higher-end Mi 8 Explorer Edition smartphone. It also featured a clear back, similar to the HTC U12+, but it didn’t show the real internals.
Buy the Mi 8 Explorer Edition on Banggood (Rs 51,700)
Launched earlier last month in China, the Oppo R17 lineup is one of the latest to feature the under-screen fingerprint sensor, which it says has an unlocking speed of 0.41 seconds. Not only that, it is also the first to introduce the trendy, new waterdrop notch, and the triple rear-camera setup (higher-end variant) on an Oppo phone.
9. Meizu 16/ 16 Plus
Meizu has also joined the party and touts to have developed a new stacking solution for AMOLED screens and an optical sensor. It uses a second-gen in-display fingerprint sensor (as stated on its official website), which has enabled this feature in an ultra-thin 7.3mm smartphone.
Vivo continues to further the reach of the in-display fingerprint scanner and just recently launched the Vivo V11 Pro mid-range smartphone in India. It features a fourth-gen in-display fingerprint scanner, which is said to be 10% faster and 50% more secure than previous generations.
