OnePlus Bets On In-Display Biometrics for 6T Smartphone Pitch

“OnePlus isn’t the first company to deliver in-display fingerprint scanning technology in a commercial device – Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi have all led the charge in that area – but it could be among the first to bring such a device to the North American market.”

In-display fingerprint scanning is becoming a central selling point for OnePlus’s next flagship smartphone.

The Shenzhen-based company first announced that its forthcoming OnePlus 6T would feature the technology last month, branding it as “Screen Unlock”. Now, in its latest media offensive, the company is putting that feature in the center of the spotlight, with a new teaser ad highlighting the in-display sensor, and CEO Pete Lau proclaiming in an interview, “After you experience the Screen Unlock you’ll fall in love with it.”

It’s a marketing strategy that reflects some of the more salient trends in the smartphone market. OnePlus isn’t the first company to deliver in-display fingerprint scanning technology in a commercial device – Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi have all led the charge in that area – but it could be among the first to bring such a device to the North American market. (Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro, another smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor, is expected to be unveiled on October 16th, while the OnePlus 6T will be unveiled on the 17th.)

And everyone is looking for ways to respond to the emergence of Apple’s Face ID system. No smartphone maker has yet delivered technology that can match Apple’s infrared facial recognition system in terms of sophistication, but multimodality and in-display technology have emerged as means of differentiating one’s brand from the competition when it comes to mobile biometrics. In making the latter a central part of its pitch for the OnePlus 6T, OnePlus is clearly placing a big bet on this strategy; and with no other such devices in the mainstream American market, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether this will turn out to be a smart bet.

Sources: Slash Gear, CNET, BGR