Most phones rely on a single fingerprint scanner alongside some form of facial recognition for secure authentication. However, Nubia has launched an Android phone with not one, but two fingerprint scanners.
Nubia NaviX Ultra packs two fingerprint scanners
Nubia NaviX Ultra packs two fingerprint readers. | Image by Nubia
The first fingerprint reader sits under the display, and it's a fairly standard Goodix ultrasonic scanner. It's used in a conventional way—for opening apps, unlocking your phone, making payments, and so on.
There's a second scanner embedded in the side-mounted AI button. The reason behind this design choice is purely convenience.
When you summon the AI agent, you'll get verified immediately, so any subsequent actions or tasks that require authentication are carried out seamlessly. This saves the user from having to tap the under-display fingerprint scanner first before summoning the AI.
Not the first phone with two fingerprint readers
Huawei Mate RS is actually the first phone with two fingerprint scanners. | Image by Huawei
Surprisingly, the Nubia NaviX Ultra is not the first Android phone to feature two fingerprint scanners. Back in 2018, Huawei launched the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, which had a rear capacitive fingerprint scanner as well as an in-display one.
In-display fingerprint scanners were far from perfect back then, so Huawei decided to slap a capacitive one on the back just to be on the safe side.
Would you buy a phone with two fingerprint scanners?
Nubia is marketing this phone as its most advanced AI device. It comes equipped with ByteDance’s Seed AI model, multimodal AI smarts, voice wake-up, continuous dialogue, code writing, and third-party app integration.
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The phone isn't just about AI, though; the specs are pretty decent, too. The NaviX Ultra features a 6.78-inch 144Hz OLED screen ($2800 \times 1260$), a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a massive 7,100mAh battery, 90W wired charging, and 50W wireless charging.
In the camera department, there's a 200MP main camera (1/1.4-inch), a 64MP 3x periscope shooter, and a 50MP ultrawide camera—so it's no slouch at all.
This phone is available only in China at the moment and starts at 5,999 yuan (~$894) for the 12GB/512GB model.
Do we need two fingerprint scanners on a phone?
I don't think so. It's overkill to double up on biometrics just to save a single step. Personally, I prefer a side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner because it's more accurate, just as fast as in-display options, and provides great physical feedback. With under-display fingerprint scanners, I end up missing the spot often, which pisses me off.
What do you think about this? Would you buy a phone with two fingerprint scanners?
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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