New Galaxy Note 8 Leak Confirms Samsung's Achilles Heel
With the Galaxy Note 8 now expected to launch at Samsung’s event on August 23rd I’m expecting the South Korean’s marketing department to lean heavily on the advanced and cutting edge technology that will be found in this year’s phablet. Which makes the decision to downgrade one part of the package not only a disappointment, but a potential commercial achilles heel.
DJ Koh, president of mobile communications business at Samsung, speaks as he prepares to introduce the new Samsung Galaxy S8 (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The flood of leaks (including some leaks that originate from Samsung itself) have allowed the industry to come to a conclusion about the design of the device,. While the decreased size of the bezels will present an impressive front, the dual camera system that will give Samsung a chance to leapfrog the competition in terms of image quality and the more angular edges of the curved screen address complaints about the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus design, one feature has not made the cut.
Samsung has been working on a fingerprint sensor that would sit under the glass. That would keep the sensor in the same place as previous Note phablets and it would give Samsung something to heavily promote by being the first to bring this technology to the smartphone market. Unfortunately as the Note 8 launch date sneaked up, reports came through that the sensor was not as invisible as hoped and it was not going to be in the final design.
That view has been confirmed by case manufacturers and the renders of their cases with the Note 8 in situ. The cutout at the rear is large enough to accommodate the dual cameras, the flash, and the fingerprint sensor The Note 8 will be following the disappointing design cue of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus by switching the primary biometric recognition duties to the rear of the machine.
Samsung PR
Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 launch invite (Samsung PR)
What makes this more interesting is that the Note 8 is aggressively pushing for a head-to-head battle with Apple over the new iPhone range. Outside of Apple’s devoted fan base the ‘Note vs. iPhone’ match-up is an exciting one, but with both handsets pushing the envelope of chip fabrication there are very few points of major differentiation.
Apple is also working on moving its fingerprint sensor away from its physical home button. At this point in time it’s not clear if Apple will be moving the sensor to the rear, embedding it in the power button, or achieving 2017’s holy grail of design and getting it under the glass. Tim Cook and his team could take the risk and remove it altogether to rely on facial recognition.
No matter Apple’s decision, the area of fingerprint recognition is an area where a marginal gain by Apple or Samsung could be the bullet point on the spec list that sways the decision-making process of the average consumer.
Now read how the Note 8 is aggressively targeting the new Apple iPhone…
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