14 DAY TRIAL // Xiaomi has recently unveiled the Mi4c affordable flagship in China, so the next-big thing we’re waiting to come out of the Chinese company is the Mi5. According to what we’ve been hearing online about the phone, the Mi5 is expected to be the first handset to take advantage of a Snapdragon 820 processor.
Initially, we were expecting Snapdragon 820-enhanced gadgetry to be making a debut on the market starting March 2016, but recent information would have us believe the Mi5 will be announced as soon as December 2015. Surely, Xiaomi will start shipping out the device a few months after the official launch of the product.
Anyway, it now seems that the Snapdragon 820 is not going to be the only first as far as the Mi5 is concerned. According to a rumor coming out of China (via Weibo), the Xiaomi Mi5 will also be the first smartphone to make use of Qualcomm’s ultrasound fingerprint recognition technology. The system is natively supported by the Snapdragon 820, so the Mi5 is going to take advantage of this aspect and put it to good use.
Xiaomi Mi5 to have an all-new fingerprint scanner
The US chip giant calls this particular setup the Snapdragon Sense ID 3D Fingerprint technology. According to the producing company, the ultrasonic sensors are capable of improving the accuracy.
Basically, the ultrasonic technology will create a 3D map of your fingers, including the micro-ridges of your skin. Qualcomm boasts that the tech can work just as well with wet or dirty fingers, which current fingerprint readers can’t do.
But what’s more interesting about the Snapdragon Sense ID 3D Fingerprint technology is that the ultrasonic sensor can recognize fingerprints even through metal, glass or plastic.
This translates into the fact that the tech doesn’t require a capacitive sensor placed on the outside of the body. Instead, device makers can attach the technology behind the display. Still, we don’t really know how Xiaomi plans to make use of the technology, so we’ll just have to wait and see until more information becomes available to us.
Not long ago, an image showing the back of Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship revealed that the phone might be taking cues from the Samsung Galaxy Note5. So it seems like we’re dealing with a real high-end device here.