Today, Chinese smartphone OEM Huawei announced its new global flagship smartphone. The Ascend Mate 7 is big, featuring a six inch touchscreen with an 83 percent screen to body ratio, and it’s thin: measuring only 7.9 mm in width. But the big excitement about this new phone isn’t it’s impressive measurements: the Ascend Mate 7 distinguishes itself as the first Android smartphone on the market to feature a touch fingerprint sensor.
The sensor in question is none other than the FPC1020 from Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC), the world’s first capacitive touch sensor designed specifically for Windows and Android devices.
According to Fingerprint Cards CEO and president Johan Carlström, the design win associated with this flagship smartphone was originally announced on December 20 of last year. At the time of the win, Huawei requested anonymity, as the smartphone market is extremely competitive.
“Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world and we are proud that Huawei selected FPC (FPC1020) for this flagship launch,” says Carlström. “We congratulate Huawei on being the first player in the world to launch an Android smartphone featuring a touch fingerprint sensor.”
Yesterday, Mobile ID World reported on the Ascend Mate 7’s mobile wallet functionality through the Alipay app by Alibaba. Payment with the Ascend Mate 7’s mobile wallet – for both on and offline purchases – will be authorized via a positive match on the FPC1020.
According to Bruce Li, Huawei’s PDT manager, fingerprint sensors are becoming essential in the smartphone race.
“We see fingerprint sensors as a key feature of smartphones for important use cases, such as mobile payments and data protection,” says Li. “We are very pleased with the performance of the FPC touch fingerprint sensor and the support that FPC has provided to us and are looking forward to continued cooperation with FPC.”
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