Exclusive: Galaxy Note 4 to sport Synaptics’ Natural ID tech, New fingerprint features

Since the beginning of the month, we have been exclusively revealing details about Samsung’s upcoming flagship phablet device, the Galaxy Note 4, bit by bit. Last week, we spilled the beans on the device’s camera features, and the development of its Ultrasonic Cover. Today, we will unfold details about the Galaxy Note 4’s fingerprint sensor.

Our credible source reports, the Galaxy Note 4 will sport Synaptics’ Natural ID solution, just like the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Alpha. Many aren’t aware of the technologies which come bundled with Synaptics’ Natural ID solution, one of those technologies is LiveFlex™. This technology allows the separation of the fingerprint sensing element from the fingerprint controller integrated circuit. Samsung uses this technology to split the fingerprint sensor into two parts, one part is incorporated into the home button, while the other part takes input from the main touch screen, and both are used simultaneously to get an ID loaded. The sensor is compliant with FIDO, as well.

After the release of the Galaxy S5, many people reported about the fingerprint scanner being crap and useless due to it being unable to correctly identify fingerprints, and most of the time throwing errors instead of unlocking their latest smartphone. The reason behind this is that when registering their fingerprints, users only swipe their finger over the home button, which is tiny and doesn’t provide sufficient area. The right way is to swipe their finger starting from the lower part of the display to the home button, not just the home button. This allows for a much greater surface area for the finger to swipe on and the result is flawless. This is actually Samsung’s fault and not the users’, because these instructions aren’t present in the current version of the fingerprint registration tutorial. If you didn’t knew about this, try it now!

Now let’s talk about the software side of things. Samsung is bringing all four fingerprint features — Screen Lock, Private Mode with fingerprint authentication, Samsung Account Verification and PayPal Payments — from the Galaxy S5 to the Galaxy Note 4. Moreover, Samsung has created a few new features, which may arrive on the Galaxy S5 in future software updates. One of those few features is, Fingerprint Shortcuts. This new feature allows the user to assign applications or specific functions as shortcuts to each registered fingerprint.

How this feature works?

“When you unlock the device with the registered fingers, you can make the finger shortcut to any applications or other functions directly from the lock screen” –  This is exactly what Samsung states during the feature’s tutorial on the Note 4.

Web Sign-in is another fingerprint-related feature Samsung has developed for the Galaxy Note 4. Web Sign-in allows the user to use registered fingerprint to sign into websites. After signing into a website manually by inputting username and password from the keyboard, the user can then simply enable “Sign in using fingerprints” and use the register fingerprint to login.

This is how the Korean giant describes this feature on the Galaxy Note 4.

“Sign in to websites that can remember passwords by swiping any of your registered fingers over the home key. To set up fingerprint recognition for your web accounts, follow the instructions below:

1. Enter your username and password for web accounts that support fingerprint recognition.

2. Enable Sign in using fingerprints.

3. Sign out of the web account, then use a registered fingerprint to sign in again.”

This is all the info we were able to obtain regarding the Galaxy Note 4’s fingerprint scanner from our sources, but we will keep you folks updated as soon as we receive new intel. Samsung will be unveiling the Galaxy Note 4 at Samsung UNPACKED 2014 Episode 2 event in Berlin on September 3, and SamMobile will be live at the event to provide you with all the news as and when it happens.