Back in June, a report emerged from China suggesting that Vivo smartphone maker, which is under the wing of BBK Electronics that also owns Oppo, could be the first to release a smartphone with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
This came after it had widely been expected for Samsung to unveil the Galaxy S8 with an in-display fingerprint scanner and failed. It was also at the same time when speculations were rife that the Galaxy Note 8 could be the one to debut with the feature, but as we all know, this did not materialize. Qualcomm confirmed this report the same month during China’s Shanghai MWC 2017, revealing that Vivo will be the first company to make use of in-display fingerprint scanning technology starting in 2018.
Earlier this week, a report was put forward by Synaptics, which is one of the leading companies in the biometric industry, suggesting that in-display fingerprint scanning is coming to phones in 2018. At the time, the company only mentioned that the technology will be adopted by a “top 5” smartphone OEM, but there was no clarification. In fact, there were some pointers to this being Samsung and the Galaxy S9, but we now have the real details about this development.
Thanks to a report published by Forbes, it’s now confirmed that Vivo will be the first smartphone OEM to take advantage of the new in-display fingerprint scanning technology. Synaptics had already confirmed that it’s working on a sensor known as Clear ID FS9500 and according to Forbes, the sensor is “fast and simple.” Apparently, the sensor will only turn on when you want to use it, a feature that is meant to help converse battery life. As it had been expected, users will see a fingerprint icon at about the same place where the physical sensor was located, but it should disappear once you are done with it.
All you need is to place your finger on the icon and your phone will be unlocked. Being Android, OEMs will be able to customize the look of the fingerprint icon to their own liking. Even though we now know that Vivo will be the one to give us the first test of an in-display fingerprint scanner, there is still no word on which phone will be using the feature. Prior to today, we’ve heard reports that the Vivo Xplay 6 could be the first to debut with the feature, but this cannot be guaranteed at the moment. The CES will be held beginning January 9, 2018, which is when the said Vivo phone will be unveiled, but it’s unlikely to go on sale immediately.
As noted earlier, Samsung is also expected to use this technology on its upcoming smartphones. While initial reports had suggested that the Galaxy S9 could be the one to debut with the feature, it’s possible that this won’t be the case. Instead, we could see the in-display fingerprint scanner hit a Sammy device in H2 2018, probably the Galaxy Note 9.