Samsung has decided to keep the fingerprint reader on the edge for its two future folding smartphones, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4.
The past few years have seen the influx of two major innovations into the smartphone market. As early as 2018, we saw the first smartphones appear with fingerprint readers positioned within the screen itself. A year later, manufacturers launched their first phones with folding screens.
However, if these two technologies have indeed marked the end of the 2010s and the beginning of the 2020s, we are still waiting to find them simultaneously in a Samsung smartphone.
Today, on its two foldable screen smartphones, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the Korean firm still does not offer a fingerprint reader integrated into the screen. To unlock smartphones using your fingerprints, you have to go through a fingerprint reader positioned on the edge of the two smartphones. However, the in-screen fingerprint reader solution is still not in the pipeline for this year’s models.
According to website information BusinessKoreaafter studying the question, Samsung would have decided to keep the fingerprint reader on the edge for its two future folding smartphones, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 et Galaxy Z Fold 4. “The fourth generation of foldable smartphones will unlock with a fingerprint recognition module integrated into the physical power button on the side of the foldable devices when folded, just like their predecessors”indicates the Korean site.
A choice justified by user experience reasons
According to an expert interviewed by BusinessKorea, this choice would have been decided because of a more favorable user experience with the fingerprint reader on the side. The advantage of the fingerprint reader on the edge is to allow the device to be unlocked both when it is open and when it is closed. If Samsung were to integrate a fingerprint reader under the screen, the user could then unlock his smartphone only when it is open. This is all the more relevant in the context of contactless payment where it is not necessary to open the smartphone to unlock it and be able to make payments simply by placing it on the edge of the closed smartphone.
However, we know that Samsung has been working for some time on integrating a fingerprint reader into a folding screen. The Korean firm had already filed a patent application to this effect. Above all, several competing manufacturers are working on devices with both technologies. This would especially be the case for the future Vivo X Fold which, as BusinessKorea recalls, should be presented this Monday, April 11.
As a reminder, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 should be presented during the summer. In the meantime, do not hesitate to dive into our file to all about folding smartphones from Samsung.
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