Vivo officially launches the world's first Under-Display Fingerprint Scanner with the Vivo X20Plus UD

 Back in 2017, there was a big race to see which manufacturer could get the under-display fingerprint scanner technology working in their phones. Apple and Samsung were the primary players in this drama, but both failed to adopt the feature in their respective flagships. Surprisingly, the one to make it work was Vivo, and at CES 2018 Vivo finally made the phone official: The Vivo X20Plus UD.

The phone uses a Synaptics fingerprint scanner that is found behind the display of the phone, and works in a snazzy fashion, illuminating the lower part of the screen in a flash of blue electricity once you place your finger on the sensor. The technology only works with OLED displays, as they are thin and transparent enough to allow the fingerprint scanner to detect your fingerprint above the screen.
This isn't the first time Vivo has showed off an under-display fingerprint scanner. Back in June last year, Vivo showed off a prototype phone using Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint scanner technology, wowing crowds at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Shanghai. The phone could unlock with your fingerprint underwater, showing off the potential of the ultrasonic technology. For one reason or another, Vivo has decided to go with Synaptics Clear ID technology instead. This one won't quite work underwater, but works accurately and quickly enough, unlocking the phone in half a second.



Other than the under-display fingerprint scanner, the phone is the same model as last year's Vivo X20Plus, and will tuck that scanner under a 6.43-inch full HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It'll have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset with 4 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal storage, a dual-camera setup with a 12-megapixel and 5-megapixel camera array at the back and a 12-megapixel front-facing camera. It'll also have a 3,905 mAh battery and Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box.
The Vivo X20Plus UD under-display model will fetch a handsome price at CNY 3,598 (about INR 36,100) which is a little pricey, but it sports a new biometric unlocking technology that no one else has offered. Unfortunately, now that Apple has set the new trend with facial recognition technology, it is unclear if this new under-display technology will catch on or have as big an impact as it would have last year.