Synaptics launched its own Force Touch solution

Oct 7, 2015 06:42 GMT  ·  By

If you follow the tech industry, you probably know that back at IFA 2015, Huawei unveiled the Mate S smartphone, which is the first device to come with a Force Touch display. A few weeks later, Apple also unveiled the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, both packing the 3D Touch technology into their frontal panel.

While Huawei was first to push out a product taking advantage of the technology, the majority of Android OEMs are yet to implement the system into their devices, so we’re probably going to see more models like this one make a debut into the wild starting next year.

In the meanwhile, Synaptics, a company best known for making touchpads for laptops, has revealed what it calls the ClearPad 3700 force-sensing touchscreen controller, a component it hopes to see incorporated in many 2016 Android flagship smartphones.

Basically, smartphone and tablet OEMs will be able to use the controller to enable iPhone 6s-like features on their devices, meaning that the product will be able to make a difference between light and hard presses. It also enables gestures that allow users to trigger actions by tapping on the side of their phone. Furthermore, the tech could enable variable speed scrolling, novel ways to zoom and interact with pics and new contextual menus.

Force Touch will become a regular feature for smartphones

Synaptics says the new ClearPad 3700 series offers support for active stylus input, including non-touch hovering from a distance of up to 25mm / approx. 1 inch away from the display.

The company’s 3700 solution is designed to go into flagship smartphones, but Synaptics also plans to launch another 3600 Series touch controllers for low-end handsets. It’s supposed to offer improvements for detecting fingers through gloves, two-finger tracking when moisture is present on the display, and face detection.

Given Synaptics’ announcement, it’s pretty clear that Force Touch technology is probably going to be the next big thing in the mobile industry and we’re soon going to see more and more Android products take advantage of the system. Who knows, Google might also join the party and provide official support for the next major version of Android (possibly called Android N).