Apple has shown in its submitted patents that it already has the technology to embed fingerprint scanners under a smartphone’s display. Samsung apparently also has access to the same technology or at least a variation of it, but the company was, unfortunately, unable to implement it on their recently released Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

Both companies are still expected to bring the technology into the mainstream with their upcoming products, but it seems like they will be beaten to the punch by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Vivo.

New video showcase

A brand new video was recently spotted today, June 15, on the Chinese website Weibo. The video showed a user holding a smartphone that looks quite similar to the company’s recently released Vivo X9 Plus handset. The device didn’t sport any physical fingerprint sensors on the front or at the back of the device.

Suddenly the user in the video was shown to have unlocked the device by pressing his thumb on the display, apparently using a fingerprint sensor that is embedded directly under the front screen.

First to sport the feature

According to Chinese industry analysts, Vivo may have already applied the technology into one of their devices and is currently mass producing it.

This means that the company may become the first manufacturer to offer a product with a built in under-the-display fingerprint sensor.

Despite being the first to do so, Vivo currently doesn’t have the worldwide reach as Samsung or Apple, which means that the tech may only become globally mainstream when Apple or Samsung offers it on their products.

Local reports have also revealed that Vivo has already announced a big unveiling event on June 28, which will be held at the upcoming Shanghai MWC conference. The company is rumored to likely showcase a prototype with the embedded scanner or perhaps even unveil an actual product that sports the new technology.

Challenging new tech

While the technology’s concept sounds like it would be a no-brainer for large tech firms such as Samsung to incorporate the feature into its products, mass producing the tech’s components is apparently an entirely different story.

Samsung reportedly had problems incorporating the technology into their recently released flagship, which eventually forced them to shift to a traditional Fingerprint Scanner that was awkwardly positioned at the back of the Galaxy S8 and the S8 Plus.
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