Samsung Could Use Ultrasonic In-Display Fingerprint Scanner For Galaxy S10

Jul. 28, 2018

Samsung does not like following the common trends in the industry, and when it does, it makes sure that the products shine above those from competitors. Now, the latest news from the industry suggests that the upcoming Galaxy S10 series of flagship smartphones from Samsung willfeature an in-display fingerprint solutionwhich will be unlike any competitor.

Samsung, as per Taiwan’sDIGITIMES, will use anultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensorinstead of the optical sensor used by Vivo on two its flagships –Vivo X21andNEX, by Xiaomi on theMi 8 Explorer Edition, and Huawei on the Porsche Design Mate RS. Unlike capacitive and optical fingerprint scanners which use light to create a map of ridges on fingers,ultrasonic sensors use sound to read fingerprints.

While the technology has been known for over a couple of years, not many smartphone makers have used it. One exception is the under-glass fingerprint sensor onHonor 10from Huawei’s sub-brand. It is unclear whether the fingerprint sensor used by Samsung will get a dedicated space on the screen or blend with the usable part of the display panel.

Samsung will reportedly be scoring these in-display fingerprint sensors from Chinese manufacturer O-film Tech and also from Taiwanese maker General Interface Solution. These fingerprint scanners will beused on two variants of the Galaxy S10including a 6.1-inch one and another 6.4-inch model. Samsung couldalso use these sensors on Galaxy Note 10and the most powerful units of theGalaxy A-Series.

Recently, there had been news about Samsung’splan to ditch the iris scannerwhich is not reliable. Meanwhile, there isno recorded plan of the company using a facial authenticationtechnology similar to Apple but with almost 9 more months before the Galaxy S10 series is actually released, there is still uncertainty on this.

However, with its Infinity Displays, Samsung has created its unique design identity and cannot be expected to easily give it up and follow trends blindly. With that said, the tech giant also has plans toimplement a notch sometime in the future, but there are no solid facts apart from a patent backing this.

We might expect to learn more about Samsung’s plans with the launch of theGalaxy Note 9which is scheduled for later this year.