Galaxy S9's Biggest Missing Feature May Not Be Ready For Note 9
A congress attendant, watching a video at Samsung Galaxy S9 in Samsung pavilion, during the Mobile World Congress day 4, on March 1, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
That feature is the ‘under-the-screen fingerprint reader’. In a world where smartphone design is moving not only to a buttonless forward fascia, but an ‘all-screen’ front panel, the issue of biometric security becomes a critical part of the design. Apple’s choice - to move away completely from fingerprints to facial recognition - will need to see wider adoption in the iPhone line over the coming years before it can be judged the right call. For other manufacturers, almost all have decided to move the Android-mandated fingerprint sensor to the rear of the device.
The ability to place the fingerprint sensor under the screen while retaining all of the pixel-based real estate would be an incredibly useful tool in any design arsenal.
Some manufacturers have already managed this - Vivo was demonstrating this in a handset at CES 2018 - but it was missing from the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus when they were announced at MWC late last month. My understanding is that although the technology was viable, the colour matching between the ‘sensor’ and ‘not-sensor’ was not acceptable to Samsung and the high accuracy demanded by the South Korean company may not have been reached:
The integrated fingerprint reader underneath the display was awaited on the Galaxy S9 but didn't arrive. Why? Mark [Notton, Samsung’s Director of Product Portfolio & Commercial Strategy] explained to us that the brand, before implementing a new technology like this, prefers to test it thoroughly and be sure it is sufficiently mature. We have seen how some Chinese manufacturers are working on it but when it comes to Samsung, and in particular popular devices such as the S9, the number of units produced is high, so it needs to be perfect.
That doesn’t mean Samsung is conscious of the design choices open to it - one reason the fingerprint sensor on the S9 has been moved further away from the camera lens assembly compared to the Galaxy S8 is down to the poor customer feedback the location received from S8 users.
A hostess holds two new Samsung Galaxy S9 mobilephones during the Samsung Galaxy S9 Unpacked event (Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)
There’s no doubt that Samsung is working the problem, and the obvious point to release this feature to the public is with the upcoming Galaxy Note 9. The phablet launch in late August has traditionally seen more forward-looking technology included in the package, before it features in the Galaxy S flagship smartphones of the next production cycle. There’s no doubt that an under-the-screen fingerprint reader would be a significant leap forward (and offer a clear point of differentiation to the iPhone X Plus which Apple would launch in the month following the Note 9), but current reports are that the two options open to Samsung have durability or accuracy issues. Tyler Lee reports for UberGizmo:
Apparently Samsung has tried both capacitive and optical sensors, but has faced difficulties with regards to accuracy for the optical sensor.
As for the capacitive version, while they could be a possible alternative, there is apparently a question of durability where they won’t be as durable, which means that Samsung probably doesn’t want to have to deal with customer complaints about fingerprint sensors not working further down the line.
Samsung made the call to not put a piece of technology into the Galaxy S9 that wasn’t ready (an approach that sounds familiar). No doubt it will face the same choice for the Galaxy Note 9. The question now is whether the technology can improve in enough time to pass the strict quality controls Samsung has, or if the under-the-screen fingerprint reader will remain a good idea that’s not quite ready from prime time for another year.
Now read more about the first leaked benchmarks for the Galaxy Note 9…
">Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus may have caught the attention of the geekerati with the first dual-lens on a flagship Samsung smartphone, a dual-aperture camera, super-slow video capture and slightly awkward animoji. But the feature that caught my eye was the feature that was not there.
A congress attendant, watching a video at Samsung Galaxy S9 in Samsung pavilion, during the Mobile World Congress day 4, on March 1, 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
That feature is the ‘under-the-screen fingerprint reader’. In a world where smartphone design is moving not only to a buttonless forward fascia, but an ‘all-screen’ front panel, the issue of biometric security becomes a critical part of the design. Apple’s choice - to move away completely from fingerprints to facial recognition - will need to see wider adoption in the iPhone line over the coming years before it can be judged the right call. For other manufacturers, almost all have decided to move the Android-mandated fingerprint sensor to the rear of the device.
The ability to place the fingerprint sensor under the screen while retaining all of the pixel-based real estate would be an incredibly useful tool in any design arsenal.
Some manufacturers have already managed this - Vivo was demonstrating this in a handset at CES 2018 - but it was missing from the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus when they were announced at MWC late last month. My understanding is that although the technology was viable, the colour matching between the ‘sensor’ and ‘not-sensor’ was not acceptable to Samsung and the high accuracy demanded by the South Korean company may not have been reached:
The integrated fingerprint reader underneath the display was awaited on the Galaxy S9 but didn't arrive. Why? Mark [Notton, Samsung’s Director of Product Portfolio & Commercial Strategy] explained to us that the brand, before implementing a new technology like this, prefers to test it thoroughly and be sure it is sufficiently mature. We have seen how some Chinese manufacturers are working on it but when it comes to Samsung, and in particular popular devices such as the S9, the number of units produced is high, so it needs to be perfect.
That doesn’t mean Samsung is conscious of the design choices open to it - one reason the fingerprint sensor on the S9 has been moved further away from the camera lens assembly compared to the Galaxy S8 is down to the poor customer feedback the location received from S8 users.
A hostess holds two new Samsung Galaxy S9 mobilephones during the Samsung Galaxy S9 Unpacked event (Photo: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)
There’s no doubt that Samsung is working the problem, and the obvious point to release this feature to the public is with the upcoming Galaxy Note 9. The phablet launch in late August has traditionally seen more forward-looking technology included in the package, before it features in the Galaxy S flagship smartphones of the next production cycle. There’s no doubt that an under-the-screen fingerprint reader would be a significant leap forward (and offer a clear point of differentiation to the iPhone X Plus which Apple would launch in the month following the Note 9), but current reports are that the two options open to Samsung have durability or accuracy issues. Tyler Lee reports for UberGizmo:
Apparently Samsung has tried both capacitive and optical sensors, but has faced difficulties with regards to accuracy for the optical sensor.
As for the capacitive version, while they could be a possible alternative, there is apparently a question of durability where they won’t be as durable, which means that Samsung probably doesn’t want to have to deal with customer complaints about fingerprint sensors not working further down the line.
Samsung made the call to not put a piece of technology into the Galaxy S9 that wasn’t ready (an approach that sounds familiar). No doubt it will face the same choice for the Galaxy Note 9. The question now is whether the technology can improve in enough time to pass the strict quality controls Samsung has, or if the under-the-screen fingerprint reader will remain a good idea that’s not quite ready from prime time for another year.
Now read more about the first leaked benchmarks for the Galaxy Note 9…
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