The Samsung Galaxy S21 series will offer an improved ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, finally. Samsung has been using the same ultrasonic fingerprint scanners since the Galaxy S10, and they weren’t exactly great
Every time Samsung would launch a smartphone with that scanner, it would get beaten by both physical ones, and optical ones. Samsung did improve those scanners in time, but they’re still not as accurate as they should be.
Well, things may change with the Galaxy S21 series, reports Ice Universe, a well-known tipster. He says that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S21 handsets is 8×8=64mm. That means it is 1.77 times larger than the one that came before it.
The Galaxy S21 coming with improved ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, it will unlock twice as fast
He also notes that the Galaxy S21 should be able to unlock twice as fast. You won’t even need to tap the display beforehand, all you’ll need to do is place your finger on the display, and that’s it.
Let’s hope that these fingerprint scanners will be a lot more accurate. Ultrasonic fingerprint scanners, in theory, should be a better choice than optical ones. That was not the case thus far, though, so let’s hope the Galaxy S21 will change that.
For that reason, pretty much every company, save for Samsung, has been using optical in-display fingerprint scanners. That may change moving forward, we’ll see, it remains to be seen how well will these work.
The Galaxy S21 series is expected to launch in mid-January. It will likely become available at the very end of January or in February. Our source claims it will arrive to the US in February, by the way.
Three Galaxy S21 handsets will launch, the Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra. All three models will have the exact same in-display fingerprint scanner. They will also offer a similar design.
You can expect a metal and glass build, a display camera hole, and a brand new design of the back camera housing. The Galaxy S21 Ultra will be the most powerful smartphone on paper, by the way, as expected. To find out more, check out our Galaxy S21 preview article.