Samsung Galaxy Note 9 May Not Have Under-Display Fingerprint Sensor: KGI's Ming-Chi Kuo

After the launch of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, the next flagship smartphone from Samsung - Galaxy Note 9 - has become the major point of speculation in the last few weeks. There have been several leaks and rumours before, Galaxy Note fans are expecting a key feature in the upcoming handset, the under-display fingerprint scanner. Earlier, reports had suggested that, indeed, Samsung may finally introduce the functionality on its flagship smartphone, but now a report has claimed that it may not happen.

An in-display fingerprint sensor is among the latest and most talked about technologies that the smartphone manufacturers have to offer in terms of the hardware. However, as per a new report by research firm KGI Securities, Samsung may not include the under-display fingerprint scanner despite all the rage during the Mobile World Congress and Consumer Electronics Show this year. According to a research note obtained by MacRumors, Samsung could be facing too many technological issues while working on incorporating the feature.

Various reports in the past, have suggested that the in-screen fingerprint scanner has been a tricky feature to implement for both Apple and Samsung. Samsung has already skipped the feature with this year's Galaxy S series models.

It is interesting to note that Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI, who had predicted that the 2018 Note will finally pull off the technology, has changed his stance and agrees that even the upcoming handset may not introduce the feature.

Kuo has explained that it is "likely" that the South Korean giant will remove the under-display fingerprint technology from the Galaxy Note 9 due to "technical difficulties." Kuo claimed that the ultrasonic sensor by Qualcomm and the optical solution by Synaptics do not meet the technical requirements of Samsung. He also claimed that the feature currently suffers from problems with screen protectors as well as different environments affecting the success rate of the sensor, which could turn out to be Samsung's reason for removing the technology.

Kuo still believes that Android smartphone manufacturers currently prefer face scanning over under display fingerprint readers. However, despite the issues, KGI is "positive" on the future of the under-display recognition technology and believes that Samsung will be a pioneer of it in OLED panels.

Is Samsung Galaxy S9 the most value-for-money flagship phone in India? We discussed that on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.