It looks like Samsung is continuing in its quest to embed a fingerprint sensor under the screen of its flagship smartphone. Recent discussions around Samsung’s Galaxy S9 have kept the idea of housing the biometric sensor under the glass of the upcoming South Korean flagship.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is unveiled at the Samsung Galaxy +
DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung [+]
The saga of the ‘under glass fingerprint reader’ has been an ever-present point of discussion for some time. For the first half of 2017 it was expected that Apple’s new ‘Pro’ iPhone would ship with a similar technology. Whether this was ever a genuine option for Cupertino will be long argued. We’ll have to wait for some memoirs to be published in a few decades to know when Apple made the decision to go ‘all in’ with facial recognition and not have Touch ID on the handset now known as the iPhone X.
Instead the screen of the iPhone X introduces OLED technology to the iPhone family, has the curiously identifiable notch in the top of the screen, and no fingerprint technology underneath the glass.
That screen is of course manufactured by Samsung – no doubt Samsung will be wondering how its lower resolution screen can be seen as ‘the most stunning screen of any smartphone’ when there is a brighter and higher resolution Samsung screen fitted to the Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, and Note 8.
Apple can mould iOS to whatever functionality is needed in the latest hardware, which is a key advantage. Samsung is not in a similar situation, as Google mandates certain items of hardware with minimum specification levels for an Android device to be certified by Google and gain access to expected software (such as Chrome, Gmail, and YouTube) as well as the Google Play Store for third-party apps. One item of hardware required is the fingerprint sensor.
Tim Cook and this team may be happy to gamble with the removal of TouchID from the iPhone X, but DJ Koh and the South Korean crew need to support a fingerprint reader on their smartphones. Next year’s Galaxy S9 will need a reader somewhere in the hardware mix
Both the S8 family and the Note 8 handsets have placed the sensor in the rear of the device, allowing the maximum amount of screen to be used on the front of the device. That location remains problematic and it’s one of the pain points highlighted by many reviewers of the premium handsets. Returning the sensor to the front of the device would address this issue. Being able to place it under the glass in 2018 would allow the shrunken bezels to remain and make a strong statement about Samsung’s technical prowess.
Expect the saga of the screen-based fingerprint reader to continue through the rest of 2017 and towards the launch of the Galaxy S9.
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