In-display fingerprint scanner: Is it a thing yet ?

The iPhone X was supposed to be the first phone to have an in-display fingerprint scanner, but was supposedly delayed, so we had to make do with an out-of-place notch and no fingerprint scanner. After that, the Samsung Galaxy S9 was supposed to showcase this technology, but as we’ve seen, that hasn’t happened. And so both Samsung and Apple have failed to show this tech.

But somehow, Vivo has come out of the blue and saved this tech from the murky depths of consumers’ memory. The Vivo X20 Plus has a fingerprint sensor made by sensor company Synaptics which lives beneath the 6-inch OLED display. When your fingertip hits the target, the sensor array turns on the display to light your finger, and only your finger.

Synaptics, which demoed the Vivo phone, says that the fingerprint reader won’t suck up much more battery by illuminating your finger, promising that its power management is equal to industry standards. It’s also very quick, hardly taking an instant to turn on the display and read your fingerprint.

This feature is essential for the future, based on the trajectory the smartphone trend is aiming towards : No bezels, only screen. How cool would it be, to just tap your screen and unlock it, rather than fiddling with the rear of your phone or the annoying home button in front. It negates the necessity of physical buttons.

Which is why, i sincerely hope that companies like Apple, Samsung and even OnePlus, take this feature seriously and integrate it into their upcoming models. It is also worth mentioning that, this technology is expensive and will only pop up, at least initially, in premium smartphones.