I’ve moved from the Google Pixel 4A, which had an excellent fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, to the 7A.

I won’t sugarcoat it: in my experience the fingerprint sensor, now an optical sensor on the front of the phone, is near useless. It fails to read my finger/thumb print basically ~95% of the time, which means it can’t be used for any account that may lock the user out following ‘x’ unsuccessful login attempts.

I really don’t get why they shipped the feature with the phone given how unacceptably bad it is to use.

Is this a common opinion shared amongst 7A users? Is there something wrong with my phone, or am I missing something? I’d welcome any advice, as I would quite like to get this working reliably.

  • Quatity_ControlEnglish
    6•1 year ago

    Are you using a screen protector? A lot of them make the fingerprint reader unusable.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      I am actually, yes, and to be fair I’d not considered this. 🤔 I guess if it’s the difference between having a scratched screen or a working fingerprint reader, I’d go with the former.

      • NekuSoulEnglish
        6•1 year ago

        During the time I used a phone with an under-screen fingerprint sensor (Galaxy A70), there were three things I’ve learned:

        1. After applying or removing a screen protector, it’s important to rescan all fingerprints.
        2. There may be an option in the settings where you can set whether you have a screen protector applied.
        3. You can scan the same finger twice to improve success rate.

        Though even with all that, a real fingerprint sensor is still better than an optical one.

        • @[email protected]OPEnglish
          6•1 year ago

          Just to add to this, in the 7A settings menu there is an option to increase sensitivity. Go to Settings > Display > Screen protector mode and toggle the option on.

          In my initial tests this has noticeably improved the accuracy of the sensor but I need to give it a bit more time before saying for sure.

      • CrisEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        Not the person you replied to, but I think I’ve heard that some screen protectors are meant for the under display fingerprint reader, but I have no experience myself. Might be worth looking into.

        Personally I really don’t know why everyone keeps putting them under the display now. Its more expensive, more involved and expensive to repair, and less reliable… Why would I want that? It feels like a meaningless “shiny” feature to put on the box.

      • Quatity_ControlEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        I found fingerprint compatible screen protectors for my 6 Pro, no reason you shouldn’t be able to do the same