Samsung is still undecided on the fingerprint reader of the Galaxy Note 9 but should finalize its plans for the upcoming device in the coming days, The Korea Herald’s Investor reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the latest developments at the firm. The company’s panel manufacturing arm Samsung Display is said to have prepared “three or four” potential fingerprint scanning options for the Galaxy Note 9 that would allow the sensor to be integrated into the smartphone’s screen, insiders claim, suggesting the upcoming phablet may end up with an optical sensing solution after all.
While Samsung traditionally finalizes the concept of its next Galaxy Note-branded device by this time of the year, around five months before flow production is scheduled to start, the Galaxy Note 9 project was delayed due to the fingerprint reader dilemma which is now set to be resolved by the end of the month, as per the same report. That state of affairs shouldn’t impact Samsung’s traditional product release roadmap, with the Galaxy Note 9 still being expected to debut by late summer. With the Seoul-based phone maker already starting firmware development for the device, the handset may even debut less than a year after its predecessor which was unveiled on August 23, 2017.
Samsung has been actively developing in-screen fingerprint readers for approximately half a decade now and repeatedly attempted commercializing them following the Galaxy Note 7’s release in the summer of 2016, according to previous reports. Insiders claim the company ended up circumventing the technology on numerous occasions as it struggled with yield rates and achieving an acceptable level of accuracy and convenience of such authentication applications. Some industry analysts remain unconvinced about Samsung’s ability to improve the technology in a substantial manner in time for the mass-production of its next S Pen-equipped Android flagship. The Galaxy Note 9 is expected to feature internal hardware that’s relatively similar to that of the Galaxy S9 Plus and stick with the Infinity Display-centric design of Samsung‘s recent ultra-premium offerings. The handset is also likely to be the company’s final high-end smartphone that lacks 5G capabilities.