Samsung's Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to land in the markets earlier than their predecessors, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ did this year. However, Samsung is hard at work to introduce an array of changes into the upcoming flagship handsets. The latest rumor reported by GizChina, indicates that the impending premium smartphones from the company will make a crucial change in the placement of the fingerprint sensor.
Galaxy S9: Where will the fingerprint sensor be moved?
According to the rumor, the fingerprint sensor in the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be moved below the rear-facing camera module.
For the 2017 flagship devices, Samsung faced a lot of flak from consumers for the positioning of the fingerprint sensor. In a bid to reduce the bezels, the South Korean company decided to place the scanner beside the rear-facing camera. This led to users accidentally smudging the camera lens in order to reach the fingerprint sensor. However, Samsung may have now taken the feedback to heart.
The upcoming mid-range smartphones from Samsung, Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) are also speculated to ship with a similar placement of the fingerprint scanner on the back. Another expected change for the scanner is its shape. Samsung's Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ may introduce the traditional circular shaped fingerprint reader, instead of the oval-shaped scanner present in the previous smartphones.
These changes may turn out to be crucial, as the placement of the fingerprint sensor was one of the only major issues that plagued the Galaxy S8 series and, to some extent, the Galaxy Note 8 as well.
Samsung's in-display fingerprint sensor
Samsung is one of the few smartphone manufacturers capable of producing in-display fingerprint sensors for its smartphones.
However, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, such a technology would likely be introduced in the Galaxy Note 9, instead of the Galaxy S9 series. A recent patent filed by Samsung also indicated that the company was planning to unveil a new design. In this design, the fingerprint sensor would be placed on the front-facing side of the handset, through a small elliptical notch on the bottom of the OLED display.
Unlike the Galaxy S8 series, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are speculated to be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in February next year. The smartphones will likely debut the 7 nm Octacore Snapdragon 845 chipset under the hood, just like its predecessors introduced the Snapdragon 835 SoC this year.
