Samsung Galaxy S9 may feature this new in-screen fingerprint scanner

It’s likely only a matter of time before we start seeing in-screen fingerprint scanners on flagship phones, and in fact the wait might almost be over, as Synaptics has announced its own solution, and strongly hinted that the Samsung Galaxy S9 will use it.

The company’s Clear ID FS9500 is described as the “world’s first in-display fingerprint sensor for smartphones” and it apparently works even if your finger is wet or cold. It’s also supposedly twice as fast as 3D facial recognition.

The press release also adds that Clear ID is durable, scratchproof and waterproof and that it works with one touch.

Sounds like a Samsung

It sounds promising, but the press release perhaps gives away more than it should have, as Phone Arena points out that it also says that the scanner is entering mass production to be used with a top five phone manufacturer and that it’s ideal for smartphones with “bezel-free OLED infinity displays.”

OLED is of course the screen technology Samsung uses in many of its phones, and while we’re increasingly seeing other handsets, such as the Pixel 2 and iPhone X, use the same tech and have tiny bezels, Samsung actually refers to the screen on the Galaxy S8 as an infinity display.

None of which necessarily means we’ll see the scanner on a Samsung phone, but it certainly suggests we will. The question then is which? Previously we’d heard that Samsung might not switch to an in-screen scanner until the Galaxy Note 9, but if the scanner is entering mass production now it’s possible that it will be used in the S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus.

With Samsung’s next flagship expected in early 2018 we should know one way or the other soon.