Huawei brings a one-touch fingerprint scanner to the Ascend Mate 7

Photo: Huawei

Photo: Huawei

Huawei’s new Ascend G7 isn’t its only device that was inspired by the iPhone, it seems. At IFA 2014 in Berlin today, the Chinese company also announced a new phablet — the 6-inch Ascend Mate 7 — which has a one-touch fingerprint scanner that offers almost instant verification just like Apple’s.

Other Android handset makers have integrated fingerprint scanners into their devices since the iPhone made them popular, of course, but those on devices like the Galaxy S5 and the HTC One max require a swipe rather than a tap. It means they take a little longer to verify who you are, and they’re not normally as accurate.

But the Ascend Mate 7’s is different, because it works just like Touch ID on the iPhone 5s; you simply hold your finger on the sensor, and in an instant it scans your print and gives you access to your phone. You fingerprint data is stored in a “trust zone” that’s inaccessibly to third-party apps, so it’s super secure.

And that’s not the only impressive thing that’s packed into the Mate 7’s attractive aluminum shell.

Up front you’ll find a 6-inch 1080p display — a big improvement over its predecessor’s 720p panel — which offers 368 pixels-per-inch and Gorilla Glass 3. Huawei’s own octa-core Kirin 925 processor powers the device, and it’s accompanied by up to 3GB of RAM and a Mali T628 graphics processing unit.

The Mate 7 has a 13-megapixel camera on its front with a Sony BSI sensor and an f/2.0 aperture, and a 5-megapixel camera on its back. It offers LTE connectivity and NFC, and just like the Ascend G7, it runs Android 4.4 KitKat with Huawei’s latest Emotion 3.0 user interface.

The Mate 7 will go on sale this quarter, starting at €499 ($660) in Europe — and it’ll be available in black, silver, and gold.