The first phone with a fingerprint reader was the Pantech GI100 from 2004. It had a reader at the center of its D-Pad, one of those early readers that required you to swipe your finger across them. This was a flip phone so the distinction between front and back is a bit iffy, but we're calling this one front-mounted (based on when the phone is flipped open). A few fingerprint readers appeared here and there over the years, but they were extremely rare - most years saw less than 4 phones. It wasn't until 2013 that biometric security became a thing in the public's consciousness. It was...
Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/counterclockwise_the_fingerprint_reader-news-28418.php
