Samsung Galaxy S5 said to have fingerprint unlock, with website logins also supported

The fingerprint sensor is said to be embedded in the home button

SamMobile is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will have a fingerprint sensor which will both unlock the phone and allow automated website logins. We’re expecting to see the S5 officially announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 24th February, though it may not go on sale until March or April.

It had earlier been rumored that the S5 would have iris recognition, but a KGI Research document pointed instead to a fingerprint sensor, which SamMobile claims to be able to confirm via sources inside Samsung.

We are finally confirming that Samsung’s upcoming flagship device, the Galaxy S5, will be equipped with a fingerprint sensor […]

Samsung hasn’t opted for on-screen buttons and is still using physical buttons, like it has been using in the past on all of its flagship devices. The sensor itself works in a swipe manner, which means that you would need to swipe the entire pad of your finger, from base to tip, across the home key to register your fingerprint properly … 

If true, the approach will be broadly similar to the Touch ID home button used on Apple’s iPhone 5s, though the scanning technologies appear different, with Samsung opting for a thin button which scans your fingerprint as you pull your finger across it.

Samsung has said that the S5 will have a significantly different design to the S4, though with most high-end handsets these days having broadly similar thin-bezel cases, the differences may be more subtle than Samsung’s comments might suggest.

We’re expecting to see the S5 available in at least two different specifications, with the so-called Prime version having a Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB RAM and a high-resolution 2K screen (2560×1440), while the Standard model has a lower-powered Exynos octa-core processor, 2GB RAM and a standard HD display (1920×1080).