The In-screen Fingerprint Scanner on Vivo X21 – Works like a charm!

The advancement that we see in the technology that powers the smartphone has always brought about things that enhance the user experience, while they also sometimes have an aesthetic appeal attached to them. The year 2018 was all about the taller displays with a new aspect ratio, and we are now even looking at notches on the display to give the front of the phone a wider area to put out the content. But now, there’s even more to it – the In-display fingerprint scanning, for example.

Vivo can easily boast about two things – 1. A phone with a full display on the front, and 2. A phone having a fingerprint scanner directly under the display, not out of it. The Vivo X21 is what we are referring to, here, as the phone is the first in India, and in fact the first in the world to have the in-display fingerprint scanning technology. Let’s talk about how good is the experience with it.

For one, there are people who would criticize the iPhone X for not having the most common security feature now, the fingerprint sensor. The flagship brands like Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei and others have retained the basic sensor either on the front or back, but each has its own limitation. While the likes of Samsung and OnePlus have the fingerprint sensor on the back, it is always that need of lifting the phone in order to access the scanner.

On the other side, the Huawei smartphones still have the sensor on the front, which makes it practically easier, but we are here heading to the time when bezels get slimmer and displays dominate on the entire front of the phone. That is what is being given by Vivo, the company that chose to go unconventional and gives a sensor right on the display itself.

The experience so far, for the few days that I have used the scanner is that this tech is brilliant, and it has to be adopted into every upcoming phone. It is easy to use, it is funky with the looks, and it is addictive.

The tech used here by Vivo is the In-display Fingerprint Scanning Technology and this is developed by Synaptics. This, in simpler words, is the fingerprint pad being embedded under the display in an exact location. This replaces the regular scanners, for good.

While first setting it up, there was some extra effort needed and you have to press onto the display for the proper registration of the fingerprint, and there is a wider registration done so that the accuracy gets better. Now, once that is done, the way Vivo has made sure that people know where to exactly place the finger, by having a bright fingerprint image that lights up even when the screen is off.

Once you get a grasp of it, it is very easy to use and unlock your phone’s screen by placing the registered finger on the display. In the setup screen, there are some very good animations to choose from while the finger is placed and the phone is matching that with the registered fingerprints in its system.

If you have heard of the Vivo APEX smartphone that is getting officially launched very soon, it is an advanced one because of the fact that the display reaches out to the corners, so much that the camera on the front is not staying there and it pops out from the back when needed. The Vivo X21, on the other side, has its own goodness of technology mixed up with a pricing that makes it easy for users to get a taste of the best without having to burn a hole in their pockets.

During the briefing about the unit, the product team from Vivo cleared that it will not just be a regular scanner but also something that will learn with time and make itself better. The Vivo X21 equipped with the Under Display (UD) fingerprint scanner is an excellent one and the experience of the in-display fingerprint scanner is so far quite good.

There’s also the Face Unlock option that the X21 has got for unlocking the phone. But then, we’ve always seen these face access features on the flagships to do well and it is the new fingerprint scanning technology that is something we need to appreciate being there and working so well.