One of the earliest Galaxy S11 rumors had talked about how Samsung's next flagship could have an in-display fingerprint reader with a considerably larger surface area for fingerprint detection. Today, that rumor has been confirmed by none other than Qualcomm, the company that makes the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader found on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10.
Galaxy S11 fingerprint reader could be considerably more accurate than the Galaxy S10's
Qualcomm has announced an upgraded version of the S10 and Note 10's fingerprint reader called 3D Sonic Max (the one on the 2019 Galaxy flagships is called 3D Sonic Sensor), and the upgraded scanner will allow users to scan two fingerprints at the same time for added security. That's made possible by the increased recognition area. The new sensor's recognition area is 17 times larger, which should result in faster recognition with a single fingerprint in day-to-day use compared to what is possible with the first generation of Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint sensors. It also enables a 1 in a million accuracy rate vs an accuracy rate of 1 in 50,000 on the current sensor.
Qualcomm isn't outright saying that the upgraded fingerprint reader will be used by Samsung for the Galaxy S11, but it seems likely. After all, Samsung is currently the only manufacturer that takes advantage of Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint sensors. Almost every other smartphone manufacturer is using optical in-display fingerprint readers for both mid-range and flagship phones, and considering the security issues Samsung has had to go through with Qualcomm's solution, it remains to be seen if other manufacturers will shift to the ultrasonic variety anytime soon.
