Samsung may include a 3D Touch-like feature in its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7. The information was posted on the Chinese social network Weibo. According to the post, Samsung is one of the partners for Synaptics' ClearForce technology announced last week.
The new technology from Synaptics enables the smartphones to sense the variation in the force applied on the display to perform different tasks. It will help users perform various tasks like picture zoom and panning, check preview of functions and perform selection, variable gaming control functions, selecting symbols and caps lock without going through the keyboard modes among others. Synaptics said that it is working on the technology in collaboration with various OEMs and LCMs. The smartphones featuring ClearForce are expected to ship in early 2016. The company also mentioned that it is available for only smartphones at the moment while wearables, tablet, and automobiles are to follow.
This would make Samsung the third company to use such a feature, with Apple and Huawei having already done so. While Huawei put Force Touch on its new Mate S smartphone, Apple of course has it on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The feature can be used to perform tasks like zooming in and previewing images. You can also hide the on-screen controls for home, back, and recent apps and simply tap on the bottom of the screen to perform those tasks. It looks like the pressure-sensitive displays are becoming a new trend among smartphone manufacturers since its introduction in Apple’s latest iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The newly launched iPhones features ‘3D Touch’ that helps users perform different tasks depending upon the pressure level applied on the display.