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.

  • Bleeping LobsterEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    Mine was a bit patchy at first but now seems to be fine. I came to 7a from an ole’ samsung s9, which was v reliable but in a different position (back) so it took some getting used to.

    I’m using my thumb, because using a finger would mean going two-handed (prefer having it on the back tbh). I’ve only scanned one position, and I do find it’s finicky in terms of needing to be in a certain position; I also find I need to press down more firmly than I expect, and it pretty much doesn’t work if my thumb is damp or wet.

    Maybe what @WhoRoger suggested will fix it, pls update the post if it does!