Vivo is the first smartphone maker to launch a handset with an in-display fingerprint sensor, but it looks like Xiaomi could be next because according to a report from XDA, Xiaomi’s next flagship smartphone could very well pack the feature. This is according to rumors and also some evidence found in some firmware.
Xiaomi’s next flagship is expected to be the Mi 7. The handset was originally rumored for a launch at MWC 2018 but that didn’t happen. Instead the rumors claimed that the handset’s launch was delayed as Xiaomi wanted to incorporate an in-display fingerprint sensor into the phone, which XDA has recently found evidence of in firmware data.
However it should be noted that the firmware that referenced the in-display fingerprint sensor was referred to an “old” model, which XDA believes might have been scrapped in favor of a newer model. This has led to speculation that the Mi 7 might not pack the in-display sensor, but rather it could be featured in the presumably larger Mi 7 Plus.
All of this is conjecture at this point in time so it is hard to say if we are reading too much into this or if there could be some truth to these claims. That being said, we did manage to test out Vivo’s use of an in-display fingerprint sensor at CES earlier this year and while it did work as promise, it was marginally slower compared to traditional sensors.