Whoever would've thought that Vivo would demonstrate an innovative under-the-screen fingerprint sensor, ahead of the Apple iPhone 8, and thereby steal its thunder?!
But that's exactly what happened at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai today, where Vivo and Qualcomm stole the show when it announced that it¡¯s doing what Apple has failed to do so far, which is putting the smartphone's fingerprint scanners underneath the display.
The new Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors, which are being incorporated in a Vivo smartphone, brings new features to the previous generation Snapdragon Sense ID technology, compatible with older Snapdragon chips from the 200 series, all the way up to the recently announced 630 and 660.
The fingerprint scanners will be ultrasonic, able to pick up a person¡¯s heartbeat and blood flow for an additional measure of security. In addition, Qualcomm says they¡¯ll not only work with sensors placed under glass or aluminium, but will function underwater as well. They¡¯ll even be able to pick up directional gestures as a plus.
According to Vivo¡¯s engineer responsible for the new technology, Vivo Under Display is a new fingerprint unlocking solution based on Qualcomm Fingerprint sensors. The ultrasound from the sensor can penetrate on OLED display that is 1.2mm thick to recognize fingerprints compared to traditional capacitive and optical fingerprint recognition technologies prevalent in the industry. Vivo under display also has advantages in waterproof and anti-ambient light.
The Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors have been designed to be used both integrated with Snapdragon platforms, as well as standalone sensors for other smartphone platforms. ¡°They will work on current generations of Android, as well as future generations,¡± Qualcomm vice president of product management Seshu Madhavapeddy said in a press briefing. ¡°There's really nothing that needs to be upgraded to support this.¡±
The new sensors are expected to be available to OEMs later this month, and making an appearance in smartphones during the first half of 2018. It's just that Vivo has been the first smartphone manufacturer to sort of demonstrate this implementation -- ahead of Apple. Ouch.