14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung will not use a fingerprint scanner under the display for the new Galaxy S9, according to a new report that surfaced today.
It’s been speculated for a while now that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 will not integrate the long-awaited fingerprint scanner under the display. With the advent of edge to edge displays, space has become a premium, and Samsung wanted to make the fingerprint scanner work through the screen. It turns out that's more difficult than they expected.
Initially, this new type of sensor should have been available in the previous generation, but the integration of such a sensor was delayed. The new technology is developed by a company named Synaptics, and you might have heard about them before because they are the ones responsible for the touchpads on many laptops.
The fingerprint sensor is not going away
Since Synaptics didn’t manage to provide Samsung with a proper solution in time for Galaxy S8, there were some rumors that they might drop them, but it’s not clear whether that happened. In any case, the technology is troublesome to implement in any meaningful way, and Samsung is dropping it, at least for now.
Have no fear, Samsung is not losing the fingerprint altogether. According to a local news report in South Korea and theinvestor.co.kr, the new Samsung Galaxy S9 will have it on the back, along with a more advanced facial recognition.
Furthermore, it’s safe to assume that Samsung didn’t just invest so much time and energy in this new technology only to abandon it. Most likely, the company will attempt to implement it in the Galaxy Note 9 that’s scheduled for the end of 2018.
We can now only hope that the location of the fingerprint sensor, on the back of Galaxy S8, will be much better than the previous generation, which was criticized for the terrible decision of choosing to place it near the back camera and to the side.