Contrary to previous rumors that suggested Samsung’s Galaxy S8 will copy some of the rumored features headed to Apple’s iPhone 8 and actually beat Apple to market with those features, a new report says that won’t be entirely the case. Apparently, Samsung won’t be able to offer Galaxy S8 buyers one of the hottest features of the 2017 iPhone: A fingerprint sensor under the display.
Both Apple and Samsung are going for bigger displays in their upcoming handsets. That means certain elements that currently occupy precious real estate on the top side of the iPhone and Galaxy S need to be sacrificed — or reimagined.
One of these items is the home button, which houses the fingerprint sensor on both the iPhone and the Galaxy S. A report indicates that Samsung may place the sensor on the back of the Galaxy S8, as is the case with many other Android devices, rather than embedding it underneath the display.
Korean site Naver indicates that the Galaxy S8’s design is mostly confirmed. The phone is expected to feature an iris scanner on the front side, and the home button should disappear to make room for a bigger display. The site says that the front of the Galaxy S8 will still have a speaker near the top, and the physical home button will be replaced with an on-screen virtual button.
Samsung has apparently tested Galaxy S8 prototypes featuring a fingerprint sensor embedded into the display, but these sensors failed to recognize a fingerprint on the screen far too often.
Naver says Samsung is likely to incorporate the fingerprint sensor into the rear camera module, according to technology that Samsung has already patented. If that’s not possible, then the sensor may be placed under the rear camera as we’ve seen on other phones.
The report also says that the bigger Galaxy S8 version will have two cameras on the back, just like the iPhone 7 Plus.
