Another major phone brand has added biometric security to a flagship smartphone as Huawei unveiled the ultra-thin Mate P7, complete with a rather unique fingerprint scanner,  at Berlin’s IFA 2014 show.

The ultra-slim 6-inch phablet device uses an interesting biometric scanner – just like TouchID on the iPhone 5S, the user simply places a digit on the scanner, according to Tech Radar’s report.

This marks it out from the scanners found on the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One Max, where the user has to swipe a digit over the scanner in a certain direction according to Digital Trends.

IFA 2014: Unique ‘iPhone-like’ scanner

Huawei is the largest telecoms equipment maker in the world. Biometrics has been one of the big tech trends for 2014, with devices as diverse as an iris-scanning smartwatch and earbuds which ‘read’ a wearer’s heartbeat using flashes of light in development, as reported by We Live Security.

Fingerprint scanners – and other biometric scans – have been predicted as “likely to become commonplace” in smartphones by MIT’s Technology Review.

Pocket-Lint says that the Ascend Mate P7 is a high-end handset with a polished metal finish just like the iPhone 5S, and a high-quality forward-facing 5-megapixel camera for “selfies.”

Digital Trends says, “Most importantly though, the Mate 7 has a fingerprint scanner that works exactly like the one on the iPhone 5S. Instead of having to swipe your finger across it like you do with Samsung’s Galaxy S5, you can simply place your digit on the scanner to unlock your phone and perform other tasks. The fingerprint sensor is located on the back of the phone below the camera.”

No swiping required

The early part of this week has seen companies such as Samsung unveil new gadgets at IFA 2014 – but the show floor proper will open tomorrow, with more biometric gadgets expected. Read the report on We Live Security this week.

Smartphones are increasingly being used both in the home and the workplace as a security measure in their own right, with mobile workers accessing networks via “two factor authentication” software such as ESET Secure Authentication.

Adding fingerprint security to the handsets provides another layer of security for data.

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