Motorola Makes Fingerprint Sensors Standard on 2016 Smartphones

Motorola has a major resolution for the new year: All new smartphones will feature fingerprint sensors. The announcement comes by way of Lenovo SVP Chen Xudong, who added in an interview that all new Moto-brand smartphones will also feature screens no smaller than 5″.

Motorola was relaunched by Lenovo last year, shortly after heavy operating losses led to the company’s acquisition by the China-based consumer electronics company. While the company proved to be wary of smartphone fingerprint sensors with last year’s releases, there was speculation as early as last summer that it would come around to the technology, which is becoming increasingly important as a means of authenticating users for the transmission of sensitive data, as in the case of mPayments.

The brand’s embrace of fingerprint scanners brings it into step with the rest of the industry, which is quickly acclimatizing to the idea that this kind of technology will soon be standard on all upper-range smartphones. And in committing so completely to the inclusion of fingerprint scanners on all new smartphones—not to mention the bigger screens—the Moto brand also emulates Apple, whose iPhones helped to pioneer the technology over the past year or so. It could be a promising sign of Motorola’s potential resurgence as a major smartphone brand over the coming year.

Sources: The Verge, TechRadar