In-Glass Fingerprint Sensor - Vivo X20 Plus

After years of waiting, it’s finally here, an in-screen fingerprint reader. In spite of persisting rumors of Apple and Samsung working on the tech, Chinese manufacturer Vivo is the first to reveal a device with an under-glass fingerprint scanner, courtesy of a year-long partnership with Synaptics. Using the world's first phone with a fingerprint scanner built into the display was as awesome.

There's no home button breaking up your screen space, and no fumbling for a reader on the phone's back. Simply press finger on the phone screen in the place where the home button would be. The screen registered finger digit, then spun up a spiderweb of blue light in a pattern that instantly brings computer circuits to mind.

Such a simple, elegant harbinger of things to come: a home button that appears only when you need it and then gets out of the way. I would bet several Bitcoins that in-display fingerprint sensors become one of 2018's biggest phone trends, starting with high-end devices like the rumored Samsung Galaxy S9.