Fingerprint sensors under the screen finally work

By admin On Jun 11, 2018

Spread the love

The idea of a fingerprint sensor under the screen has been around for years. Apple was working on it , Samsung was working on it, everyone was working on it. How surprising is it that Vivo is the first with a working system that is also for sale in the store. The Vivo X21 has the sensor under the screen and the first impressions of the device, among others from The Verge seem to indicate that it all works fine.

As you can see in their test it is a matter of touching and starting with the sensor. It seems to be slightly slower than the sensors in other phones, but it does work. Interesting detail is that the technology behind this sensor only works with OLED screens, because your finger is highlighted from the screen side. Traditional LCD screens have a backlight that makes this process difficult.

(image: The Verge)

Road at the back?

Now that this technology is finally far enough advanced, it would normally mean that just about every smartphone maker would get away with it. It would be weird if this is not a standard option on Android phones, that’s right, but whether Apple still wants a fingerprint sensor under the screen is still the question. They have gone so all-in on Face ID that there is a chance that they would prefer to go further than invest in this technology. Of course it is also the question whether Vivo has patents on these sensors, because then it will be more costly for everyone to do this.

The technology has in any case really arrived. Vivo had of course announced a while ago that they would release this phone with this technology, but there is nothing like a test in the longer term to see if the technology really works as well as a manufacturer says. The fact that it can now be categorized as a working feature means that we can again take a look at the ‘we want on every smartphone’ list. Now that completely borderless screen still.