Samsung apparently wanted to use an on-screen fingerprint sensor, but ditched it due to lack of time

One topic of controversy in the Galaxy S8 leaks so far has been the placement of the fingerprint sensor. Since the phone has no room for a button on the front, the sensor was moved to the rear, next to the camera sensor. Previous rumors had pointed to a sensor under the display, and now we might know why the phone won’t have this feature.

Many of the phones on the market today come with fingerprint sensors mounted on the rear, and they’re pretty solid for the most part. The biggest complaint with that position, though, is getting to the sensor when the phone is face up on the table. The easy solution is a sensor on the front, but I’m not a fan of the look of that. The middle ground is placing a sensor under the display, but so far we haven’t seen that in use. Apparently, though, Samsung did want to give it a shot on the S8.

According to The Investor, Samsung “poured resources” into getting that sort of sensor working for the S8, but the results were “frustrating,” as Synaptics wasn’t able to fully develop the technology in time for the phone’s production. That led to a last-minute decision to place the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, despite the efforts to get the sensor under the display for a more familiar experience for Galaxy users.

Obviously, the benefit to having the sensor under the screen would be easy access, along with a cleaner design on the rear of the phone. The biggest issue with having it on the rear is the placement next to the camera sensor, which will undoubtedly lead to mistakenly pressing the camera sensor. Odds are, this move will also end up making the Galaxy S8 look just a bit inferior to competitors like the iPhone 8, which is expected to have a custom fingerprint sensor under the display.