Hacker News Reader

Comment by ActVen | Hacker News Reader

Execution is important.

Atrix: Turn the phone over. Slide your finger vertically across the reader. Turn your phone back over and commence use of phone.

Apple: Place your finger on the most used button on the phone, any direction you would like.

Edit: Fair point that you don't have to turn the phone over. I think it is still quite a jump forward in usability to incorporate it up front, embedded into a button that people constantly use on the device, and usable in any position.

View on HN

You obviously don't need to turn the phone over to slide your finger across the reader. In fact, the reader is positioned on the wake-up button you need to press anyway. The location is convenient, and using the fingerprint sensor in Atrix is quite pleasant.

Source: I own Motorola Atrix phone. I used to be happy with it, but then the GPS broke, and camera became flaky, not to mention lack of Android updates.

As another Atrix owner, backing this up entirely. It's in a position where you basically hit power and then slide your finger down along it.

Edit: As a side note, the lack of it on other Android phones is really making it hard for me to want to switch.

If you really want and Android phone with a fingerprint reader, at least one is apparently incoming:

http://www.phonearena.com/news/At-least-one-upcoming-2013-An...

We don't know which phone, but my guess is the HTC One Max. It has had fingerprint rumors associated with it for a while and it is one of the few 2013 flagships we haven't seen yet.

Another Plus vote for the Atrix FP Sensor. I have used this and it was intuitive.

Agreed. It was actually an OK phone for its time and the FP sensor worked as advertised - wake up and slide wasn't such an inconvenient way to unlock. (The Atrix FP sensor was also made by Authentec btw.)

It sucked that Motorola dumped it soon after 2.3.6 update esp since the hardware was more than capable of running even 4.1.

I owned the Atrix and I think the fingerprint scanner was perfectly placed. All you had to do is hold the phone normally and swipe your index finger across the back -- much more convenient the than the iPhone thumb press, in my opinion.

Am I the only one he gets thumb cramps from having to move my thumb all over?

Exactly. More Features != Better Product.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com