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What happened to the fingerprint sensor on the Huawei P20?

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© Android Authority

Recently, Android Authority managed to get their hands on a prototype of the Huawei P20. The Chinese manufacturers' latest device will be presented at its own event on March 27 in Paris, and judging by the latest leaks, there will be much to be revealed. 

Huawei P20 is set to surprise us

In the photos just leaked, we can take a first look at Huawei's latest flagship. It seems the manufacturer is moving towards a design similar to that of the Mate 10 series, with extremely thin bezels and a glass panel on the back, surrounded by a metal frame. 

Unfortunately Android Authority were not able to turn on the display to show this in detail, but we can see the Always-on display in action in the photos, and the panel used appears to be LCD type, not AMOLED.

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The tone of the black on the display may indicate an LCD panel / © Android Authority

The rear double camera similar to that of Honor View 10 can be seen with Leica lenses. This is just the first detail that is missing on the prototype. Wasn't the Huawei P20 supposed to have a triple camera? According to the source, the triple camera will only be incorporated on the Pro or Plus model of the P20, so don't worry!

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These cameras aren't aesthetically pleasing or practical / © Android Authority

If you take a look at the right side of the smartphone, you can see of the on/off button, but the physical keys for the volume controls are missing all together. Well, this is what you might think unless you pay closer attention.

As Android Authority points out, in the area above the power button, you can see several dots in place of the usual volume button controls.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) 20 september 2016

If this is implemented in the final version of the P20, it would be stepping away from the classic configuration for the volume keys that we have been familiar with for years. This could improve the user experience, as we'll simply have to slide over the touch sensor to control the volume. Some of you may remember that HTC was also working on a similar feature called Edge Sense.

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An interesting change to the volume controls / © Android Authority

We can also see the absence of the 3.5mm headphone jack, news isn't too surprising considering that the Mate 10 Pro ditched the jack too. At the bottom, is a double grill which we would assume would be for stereo speakers. However, it's probable that one of the two speakers will provide a microphone for calls, which is a similar configuration we can find on many other smartphones, such as the Galaxy S8.

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The headphone jack is history / © Android Authority

...What happened to the fingerprint sensor?

However, there is an essential component missing for a top-of-the-range smartphone (unless we're talking about Apple): where is the fingerprint reader? This feature is not placed underneath the display like on P10 and cannot been seen on the back of the phone, similar to other Huawei devices.

So, has Huawei decided to remove it and use other unlocking methods such as face recognition? I doubt that this is the case. Looking at this photo of the front of the P20, we can see something strange:

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The bezels have been kept to a minimum / © Android Authority

Notice anything different? Look at the top of the photo, can you see the circles? It might be that Huawei has decided to introduce a fingerprint reader integrated into the display, as used by Vivo in the X20 Plus UD.

It would be the first top of the range smartphone to come with this feature, which would make the Huawei P20 even more interesting. I think that the Huawei P20 is set to be more exciting than the S9.

Do you think Huawei will be the first to implement this new technology? What would you like to see in the P20?

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  • WGACA 2
    WGACA Feb 23, 2018 Link to comment

    You can all keep your panties on. In display fingerprint scanner not gonna happen. Nor the volume control or the slim bezels. The P20 just passed through China's regulatory authority TEENA for certification. It's the iPhone X clone all along.


  • David Martrano 29
    David Martrano Feb 23, 2018 Link to comment

    The FPS within the display. I would love to see what AT&T & Verizon would say if that is the case. They could have been the 2 carrier's in the US to have offered that to their customer's! Yikes!