It is only this year that the in-display fingerprint reader has come into the spotlight with Vivo’s announcement. But, the world’s topmost phone makers have been grappling with the tech since last year. The Galaxy S9 & the iPhone X were tipped to come with the awesome technology but neither of them did. Apple instead opted for Face ID and Samsung has stayed loyal to the trusty fingerprint sensor.
However, the Galaxy Note 9 was the favourite candidate to come with the tech this year. Although reports started to surface in February that even that is not certain. Now, renowned KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, reports that Samsung has finally dropped the feature. The move is due to technical failure from Samsung’s hardware partners. It was, in fact, Kuo himself, who said that the Galaxy Note 9 would come with the in-display fingerprint scanner.
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“While we previously predicted that Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy Note 9, due out in 3Q18, will come equipped with an under-display fingerprint recognition function, we now believe Samsung will cancel this feature on Note 9 because both ultrasonic (provided by Qualcomm) and optical (provided by Samsung LSI, Goodix, Egis, and Synaptics) solutions cannot meet Samsung’s technical requirements,” explained Kuo.
Kuo believes that screen protectors don’t play very nice with the in-display sensor. And this would be bad for Samsung who wouldn’t want another Note series fiasco after the explosive Note 7.
Well, there goes one of the most interesting features of the Galaxy Note 9 out of the window. But all is not lost as the analyst says that the tech will still go mainstream next year. That is when the modules get into mass production and prices drop making it more affordable.
