Vivo has shown at CES the first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint scanner. Moving the fingerprint sensor to inside the display is expected to accelerate the trend for full-screen phones with ever-thinner bezels.
Vivo said it's working with Synaptics on the display. Synaptics announced in December that it started production of the technique with a top-5 OEM. China-based Vivo was in the top-5 global smartphone makers earlier in 2017, but fell back in Q3 to an estimated sixth place.
According to Canalys, smartphone vendors shipped 22 million full-screen smartphones worldwide in the second quarter in 2017, up from 700,000 in the first quarter. UBI Research predicts that bezel-less displays will grow in market share from 20 percent in 2017 to over 50 percent by 2020.
Vivo first presented a prototype of its fingerprint scanning solution at MWC Shanghai 2017 based on an ultrasonic sensor. The company said it's now ready for production and expects to announce the first smartphone with the in-display scanner in "early 2018".
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 mobile payment authentication. Users can press the fingerprint graphic on the screen to perform unlocking, payment and other operations. When fingerprint recognition is not required, the UI will be invisible and will not disrupt the overall visual experience.
