To make bezels thinner, smartphone manufacturers have to make some compromises. One of them is to remove physical button, but that also affects fingerprint scanner, which is very often embedded into the home button. Many have expected that Galaxy S8 and S8+ would have fingerprint scanner under the display, but the technology wasn’t yet ready.
Unfortunately, it seems that Apple has the same problem with the iPhone 8. Due to thin bezels, the Cupertino company will reposition the Touch ID to the back. Fortunately, the scanner right isn’t next to the camera lens, but underneath them.
“Both Samsung and Apple tried to enable in-display fingerprint sensing on full-screen OLED phones in 2017, but their optical tech seems immature and the major iPhone 8 bottleneck. Some thus speculate the fingerprint sensor will be removed and replaced by 3D sensing. Our latest supply chain checks indicate the iPhone 8 will still have the sensor given security, user-friendliness, and a need for payments infrastructure, but there is a high chance it will be on the back like Samsung’s Galaxy S8.” – CLSA report.
