Vivo to Beat Apple in Shipping On-Screen Fingerprint Sensor?

A new Vivo smartphone has been leaked in a video purportedly showing an on-screen fingerprint sensor. The blurry short clip was shared on Weibo, and showed a Vivo-branded smartphone purportedly being unlocked using the fingerprint sensor embedded in the screen.

The 4-seconds short clip showed the phone sporting an all-metal unibody design with dual-rear cameras. Gizchina reported the Weibo video first, and points out that the phone sports a design that's similar to the Vivo X9 Plus, which has dual cameras at the back. Though, one of the things missing in the leaked Vivo handset is front-facing physical fingerprint scanner integrated in the home button.

Smartphone analyst Pan Jiutang shared the short clip on Weibo, and added that Vivo will be the first to launch a smartphone with the technology. Jiutang, however, adds in his Weibo post that Apple will be the manufacturer that will bring the tech into the 'global mainstream'. If this video is legitimate - and it's kinda hard to tell from such a short video - Vivo may showcase this technology at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Shanghai later this month.

The on-screen fingerprint sensor on smartphones have been predicted to make a debut this year, and there have been rumours that Apple could bring the tech in its next iPhone. Some reports have also pointed that Samsung could join in with the Galaxy Note 8 set to launch later this year, while others have said Samsung ran into problems trying to implement this tech.

There have been few fingerprint module makers that have confirmed that they will start shipping on-screen fingerprint sensors to global handset manufacturers this year. CrucialTec, a fingerprint module maker, earlier this year announced its solution that lets high-res scanning through glass with button-free design. Synaptics has been another fingerprint module maker that introduced its optical fingerprint scanner for smartphones and tablets last year which is capable of high-res scanning through 1mm of glass with button-free design.