One of the highlights of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is Vivo’s demonstration of a smartphone with a fingerprint sensor under its screen.
According to rumors, Samsung and Apple considered the tech for the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone X respectively. However, it only became viable now and Vivo beat them to it.
When consumers demanded slim bezels in smartphones, manufacturers moved the fingerprint sensor at the back while Apple removed it altogether and replaced it with Face Recognition.
However, the use of fingerprint is still the more convenient and secure way of unlocking a smartphone. The technology just hasn’t caught up yet.
Now that Vivo has integrated the under display fingerprint sensor in a smartphone, other brands will inevitably follow.
The unnamed Vivo smartphone that the company showed off at CES is using a fingerprint sensor from Synaptics called Clear ID. It works by illuminating the finger through the screen and reading the fingerprint pattern.
However, it only works with OLED displays since LCD displays have a non-transparent layer for the backlight. Early hands on reviews also noted that it’s a bit slower than traditional fingerprint sensors.
Nevertheless, succeeding iteration of the technology will only make it better.
