How do you unlock your phone? In the past, most would say pattern lock or pin lock. Now, fingerprint scanner is the most common answer. The technology is available to almost every phone launched from 2018. But do you know about Goodix?
The Shenzhen based tech company has the most market share of the fingerprint scanner technology. It is so popular that it might be easier to mention smartphone and computer brands not using Goodix.
Chinese companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, Meizu and Lenovo etc. have been its regular customer. Other companies outside China such as LG, Dell, Nokia etc. are also using Goodix’s fingerprint scanner.
Samsung might be the only one on the top smartphone maker, aside of Apple Inc, that doesn’t use Goodix. It is stubborn enough not to use the Chinese product. After trying to work on the similar thing with Synaptic, Samsung turns away from the Canadian company to Qualcomm.
What’s behind Goodix fingerprint scanner?
Goodix is not the first one to launch the technology on a smartphone. Vivo has previously worked with Canadian Synaptic and launched smartphones featuring the tech. It took over Samsung and Synaptic partnership that ended with Samsung not using any of the later tech.
But the model was not perfect. Even Goodix’s founder, David Zhang had predicted that it won’t work. He had warned Vivo, telling the company to be patient while his company perfected the tech.
Vivo’s ignorance on Zhang’s warning got the company’s fingerprint scanner branded as slow and unreliable. And after Goodix showed how it can scan fingerprint effectively within 0.2 second, Vivo switched to the Shenzen company.
The secret behind Goodix’s fingerprint scanner is a hidden small camera lens under the sensor. It works as an optical scanner for fingerprints. While Synaptic uses an actual chip only.
