The one found on the OnePlus 3 is rooted into the phone's home button while the Xiaomi Mi 5s uses its new under -
glass ultrasonic fingerprint sensing technology that Tech Times reported to work similarly like the 3D touch on the Apple iPhone 6s and newer models, but without the need for a home button.
Not exact matches
The Xiaomi Mi 5S is the first phone to come with a non-porous
ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that lives under the 2.5 D front
glass panel and since it features a full metal unibody design, there is no room for a removable battery.
The Qualcomm's sensor for
glass will be the first commercially announced
ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that will be able to scan
fingerprints through OLED displays.
Sonovation announced on Tuesday that it can insert
ultrasonic biometric sensors under a Gorilla
Glass display, and the device would still be able to read a user's
fingerprints.
Qualcomm fueled the fire for the second option last month when it announced an
ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that works under
glass, metal and water.
It is not yet mentioned how the technology exactly works but we can get an idea from the Samsung patent where they used 12 pressure point sensors sandwiched between cover
glass and display panel where the scanner passes
ultrasonic signals through an OLED to read the contours of a
fingerprint without making direct contact.
The sensor, as it turns out, is the latest
ultrasonic fingerprint sensor from Qualcomm that now works through OLED display stacks up to 1.2 mm thick, up to 0.8 mm of cover
glass, or up to 0.65 mm of aluminum (an increase from 0.4 mm for both
glass or metal).
The devices offer mostly expected updates, including an improved camera and faster processor, but there is one particularly interesting touch — a new
ultrasonic fingerprint reader built under the
glass at the bottom of the phones.
Xiaomi has presumably beaten Apple to punch with its Mi 5s phone (starting at $ 300), which integrates an
ultrasonic fingerprint sensor under its
glass.