Last June we mentioned that Vivo - one of the most popular smartphone OEMs in mainland China - will be the first to introduce a device that houses a fingerprint scanner embedded in glass.
The news broke out amid conflicting reports about whether Apple would introduce similar technology on the high-end iPhone X (then known as the "iPhone 8"). While Cupertino eventually settled on Face ID, Vivo still managed to pull through its promise this week in SES 2018.
While it hasn't been officially announced (or even given an apt name), the Chinese phone maker has shown the world's first smartphone to feature a fingerprint scanner under the display glass.
The technology, called ClearEd, was developed in cooperation with Synaptics and Qualcomm. According to Vivo Senior Vice President Alex Feng, "The solution is to solve the industry's challenge in providing a more convenient authentication experience."
The solution that Synaptics is licensed exclusively to Vivo, at present, is facilitated by an ultrasonic sensor embedded in the phone's OLED glass and back panel display.
"To authenticate," Pegger explains, "piezoelectric effects (mechanical stress or surface pressure) are used to exchange ultrasound signals that travel through an OLED screen."
Once these ultrasound signals are on their way through the OLED panel, a 3D map of the user's fingerprint is created, and the data on the fingerprint is then compared for authentication.
"By applying mechanical pressure or pressure on a specific area of the screen, fingerprints are recorded and authenticated."
While the rest of us will simply have to wait and "scan for ourselves" to take an honest opinion, those who have been fortunate enough to test the new technology in Vivo on CES have been reporting mixed experiences.
According to Vlad Vlad Savov, while the mechanisms for creating a clear ID and scanning your finger work exactly as you'd expect from a Touch ID sensor, the technology embedded in the glass is surprisingly "slower" - "both to see the contours of my fingerprints and unlock once I put the thumb on Screen on the fingerprint prompt. "
"Basically, every other fingerprint sensor these days is fast and extremely fast, so with it being the latest technology, a slight lag feels more clear."
Andy Boxall of DigitalTrends seems to offer a slightly more optimistic tone about his experience, saying "it's incredibly natural," it works quickly, and "gives the bezel-less smartphones with the 18: 9 aspect ratio the sleek look they deserve."
We still do not know when Vivo will present its new device, or what will be called, but the company said that the official announcement of the phone should be soon as production is huge.
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