The next Apple iPhone could bring back Touch ID after around four years, but this time it could be located underneath the display. Apple has reportedly started testing an in-display fingerprint sensor for this year’s iPhone lineup and the upcoming iPhones could feature both Touch ID and Face ID. The opportunity for bringing back the fingerprint sensor on iPhones could not have happened at a better time since the Coronavirus has ensured that everyone is masked up at all times.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal that cites two former Apple employees, the Cupertino giant is working on including an in-screen fingerprint sensor in addition to the facial recognition Face ID system. Apple abandoned Touch ID from iPhones following the launch of iPhone X in 2017. However, the company has filed patents for in-screen fingerprint sensors going as far back as 2014. The report also cites a recent patent Apple filed for recognizing a fingerprint from any part of the screen.
The in-display fingerprint technology isn’t anything new and Android smartphones have now widely adopted optical readers and even ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. However, Apple got done with it after the debut of Face ID on the iPhone X but continued equipping it on other products like MacBooks and even modified it to work in tandem with the power button on the iPad Air 4.
In 2020, Apple released the iPhone SE 2020 with the Touch ID sensor, making it the only phone in production to offer that security feature. There is no clarity on whether Apple will use an optical fingerprint reader or an ultrasonic sensor on the next iPhone just yet.
Apart from the in-screen fingerprint reader, the next iPhone could also feature a high refresh rate that could go up to 120Hz along with camera improvements. Having said that, this year’s iPhones won’t feature major upgrades and instead are speculated to be incremental updates