Vivo Gets Dibs on Qualcomm's Under-Screen Fingerprint Sensor Tech
Chinese tech company Vivo beats Apple and Samsung in developing the first smartphone with a fingerprint sensor placed under the display.
Vivo will be the first to make use of Qualcomm's new under-screen fingerprint-sensing technology that was launched at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). The Vivo XPlay 6 was used in showing it off at the event.
The tech makes use of piezoelectrics to send ultrasonic waves through the display glass that, in turn, reads the fingerprints. It can even efficiently function even when the user is unlocking the phone with wet fingers.
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The fingerprint sensor will not have a hard time reading the fingerprints even under OLED displays up to 1.2mm-thick as well as metal and glass. It will not have trouble functioning even when the device is submerged in water.
A clip of a prototype of the tech in action has recently found its way online. While it is not the best resolution and only ran for a few seconds, users can get an idea on how it works.
The folks over at Engadget managed to try out the tech and noticed that it is slower than what they are used to with the current fingerprint sensors embedded on the back or home buttons of flagships.
Also, the area in which to place the finger to be able to unlock it was also small. Engadget, however, was told by Vivo that while expanding the covered area might mean increasing the production costs so they might resort to just the bottom half of the device.
It is unknown at the moment when Vivo will come out with a device equipped with the under-display fingerprint sensor. Qualcomm, however, plans to start commercial sampling fourth quarter of this year.
The company also made it possible to integrate the tech on smartphones with the Snapdragon 660 and 630 processors under the hood. This one will start shipping this month.
