Fingerprint sensors and Face ID on smartphones are so common these days that we almost don’t give a second thought to how we unlock and authenticate with our devices. By now, many might have already forgotten the bad old days of “1234” PINs or no security measures at all, but some think that we could still do better in some ways. These security methods, after all, require you to at least touch your smartphone or hold it near your face, which isn’t always possible in all circumstances. When you need to unlock your phone from a distance, you’re pretty much out of luck, unless you own a Realme GT5 Pro that can apparently unlock your phone just by reading your palm.
Designer: Realme
Although face recognition technologies like Face ID do work from a short distance, you will need to either stoop down or have your phone at head level in the first place. If you’re in the kitchen cooking with the phone on the counter or have smudgy thumbs, neither fingerprints nor faces will be convenient or practical. Realme’s latest flagship tries to offer a third method where you can simply bring your palm near the screen and it will unlock automatically. You might think that it’s simply using a proximity sensor to detect if a hand is nearby, but the brand insists that isn’t the case.
It instead uses the 32MP front-facing camera to take an image of your palm and compare it to secure references, pretty much the same way optical fingerprint scanners work beneath the phone screen. Admittedly, the technology is still a bit new, especially in this kind of application, so there might be some hesitation in relying on it completely for security. Fortunately, there’s also the usual under-screen fingerprint scanner for more regular uses.
The Realme GT5 Pro also uses that system to enable hands-free control using hand gestures. A thumbs up can “Like” a post on a social media platform, a pinch can take you to the recent apps list, and flipping your palm can take you to the home screen. Considering you can’t really use your face for such actions, these gestures will be a huge help when you can’t touch your phone’s screen for one reason or another.
As far as the phone itself goes, the Realme GT5 Pro is quite a handsome device, with vegan leather white or orange variants as well a more classic matte black model. A large camera bump sits in the middle of that rear panel, designed to mimic the look and feel of a camera lens rim. At the moment, the smartphone is available only in China with an international launch to be announced later.
