Vivo Beats Smartphone Leaders, Introduces First In-Display Fingerprint Scanner
Vivo is making its mark in the smartphone-making scene after it announced it had created the first-ever "ready-to-produce" fingerprint scanner placed beneath a display panel even before the major players did.
During the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Vivo presented a smartphone that was equipped with "the world's first ready-to-produce in-display fingerprint scanning technology" that was made possible through the China-based company's partnership with Synaptics.
In a press release, Vivo confirmed that the in-display fingerprint scanning technology would be used for several functions other than just unlocking a device and would automatically be activated whenever biometric authentication was needed.
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"A graphical UI will show up on Vivo's smartphone screen in any scenario that fingerprint recognition is required, such as when the screen is off, during software unlocking, or even mobile payment authentication. Users can press the fingerprint graphic on the screen to perform unlocking, payment and other operations," Vivo explained.
Probably one of the concerns among users still not familiar with the technology is whether the fingerprint scanning technology's graphical user interface would interfere with the other items shown on the screen. To answer this, Vivo promised that the technology was designed to be "invisible" whenever it was not needed.
One of the smartphone trends in 2017 that is expected to continue in the years to come is for mobile devices to have a bezel-less screen design. In a global scale, Samsung introduced its Infinity Display first on its Galaxy S8 series and later on with the Galaxy Note 8. Meanwhile, Apple released its iPhone X that sported an edge-to-edge display.
However, these smartphone screen innovations required companies to remove the physical home button from their new smartphones. This led them to either relocate the button to a different position, or completely remove it and the fingerprint scanner it contained.
On the other hand, Vivo's in-display fingerprint scanning technology did not seem to hinder the already popular bezel-less screen design - something that was evident in the prototype the company brought to CES 2018.
The Vivo smartphone with the new technology also sported a relatively thinner screen bezel. In fact, it was also built with an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) -- the panel needed for manufacturers to create a bezel-less or edge-to-edge screen.
Meanwhile, Vivo confirmed that its mobile phone that carries the first in-display fingerprint scanner was now "ready for mass-production," and would be formally announced "in early 2018."
