Weekly poll: Are in-display fingerprint readers the future?

Fingerprint readers convincingly beat 3D face scanning in a previous poll of ours, now let’s talk about the positioning. In-display readers are available on a few premium devices, but the tech is quickly gaining popularity.

The Meizu 16 and 16 Pro have already brought the price of admission way down – the smaller model starts at €340. The Oppo R17 will an in-display fingerprint reader as well, and so will the very similar vivo V11. And there are vivo’s earlier efforts: X20 Plus UD, X21 UD, NEX S. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer too (those are all flagships, though).

Analysts believe that by the end of the year 42 million phones with in-display fingerprint readers will have shipped, a number set to grow to 100 million next year. Clearly, the technology is picking up steam. And we know there is interest.

But this type of reader is slower than the old-school capacitive reader. The best today can do their job in 0.25s, but that competes with 0.1s reaction time for the capacitive kind. And other than the cool factor, is a reader in the display really more convenient than one on the back?

The best position for the fingerprint reader

In the display On the back

On the side Don't care

If you missed it, check out the Sunday debate from a month ago on the topic of in-display vs. rear mounted readers.