Samsung has one too many reasons to include an under-display fingerprint reader in upcoming Galaxy Note 9: Report

tech2 News StaffMar 23, 2018 21:23:52 IST

Samsung is expected to bring an under-display fingerprint on the upcoming Note 9 expected to be launched in late August. The company recently launched Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.

Representational image. Reuters

According to a report in the Korean daily, The Korea Herald, Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics, has prepared four solutions to embed the fingerprint sensor inside the display, out of which one is seriously being considered by both. The delay in the decision is because of the work involved in adopting the in-display fingerprint sensor, which is expected to be done by this month, the report mentioned.

Jusy Hong, director of the a financial services company IHS Markit in London said that Samsung Display is focusing on improving fingerprint scanning technology on flexible AMOLED panels for the Note 9 before its launch in late August this year. The report also mentioned that the under-screen fingerprint displays will soon be released into the market and that Huawei or Samsung might be the first manufacturers to feature the new production-ready technology.

After the oddly placed fingerprint reader on the Note 8 phablet, Samsung changed the location of the fingerprint module on the latest Galaxy S9 series. But keeping the fingerprint reader module on the rear side of the smartphones also meant that Samsung couldn’t expand the battery life in comparison to the previous models. In short, Samsung has one too many reasons to include an in-screen fingerprint reader in the Note 9 this year.

Hong also added that Samsung and Huawei are expected to adopt the under-display fingerprint reader whereas Apple will stick to its 3D Face ID solution. The in-display scanning technology is estimated to be more costlier than the Face ID with prices close to $15.2 per unit, but since Samsung sells 10 million Note 9 units per year, the adoption of new technology is reasonable.

Samsung has already patented the under-screen fingerprint technology. An earlier report has mentioned that the Note 9 might not come with the under-screen fingerprint technology because of technical issues.  For now, Vivo has one the race when it comes to unveiling a smartphone with an under-display fingerprint technology but Samsung and Huawei are expected to catch up. The company recently unveiled another smartphone Vivo X21 UD in China which comes with under-screen fingerprint reader.

Samsung has not made any considerable changes on the Galaxy S9 this year so it makes sense to deliver something new with the Galaxy Note 9 and keep the momentum going until the tenth anniversary of its Galaxy Series in 2019.