The OnePlus 6T’s biggest problem will magically solve itself over time, company claims
One of the OnePlus 6T’s headline features is Screen Unlock, its in-display fingerprint scanner. The Chinese firm kicked up an almighty fuss around it ahead of the phone’s launch, but cool as it is, we were slightly underwhelmed by it when we actually managed to get our hands on the 6T.
As we wrote in our review: “The feature sounds cool, but it isn’t perfect… The [OnePlus 6]’s rear-mounted solution was undoubtedly faster but it added seams to the design and it would seem that OnePlus considered that a problem, or simply antiquated. The new concealed optical sensor is definitely a touch less reliable than its predecessor, but it feels very cool to use.”
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According to OnePlus, however, Screen Unlock should get faster and more reliable over time. The company published a blog post over the weekend, in which software engineer Yale Liu explains:
“Every time a user successfully unlocks the phone with their fingerprint, the sensor also records areas of the finger that weren’t registered in the initial fingerprint setup stage. This fingerprint data is then added to the data the phone already holds, making it more complete. So, every time the in-display fingerprint sensor is used, it gathers more data about the user’s fingerprint. This means that over time, the phone will unlock even faster.
“The sensor’s algorithms are also able to figure out when the user’s fingerprint is different than usual – if their finger is wet or if they have a cut on it, etc. In these cases, once the phone is successfully unlocked, the algorithms add this new fingerprint data to the existing data to improve unlock speeds under these conditions in the future.”
The blog post also includes a few tips for improving the Screen Unlock experience (below):
Image Credit: OnePlus
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One of the recommendations is particularly interesting. OnePlus says it recommends you re-register your fingerprints every time you add or remove a screen protector.
The company also says you should use Screen Unlock alongside Face Unlock for a faster unlocking experience.
Have you experienced any issues with Screen Unlock? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
