Samsung has announced its latest and greatest flagships: Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge during an Unpacked media event. Among many improvements and new features, the new devices got a brand new fingerprint scanner, which – unlike its predecessor – doesn’t need users to swipe their fingers on the scanner to unlock the device. The new Galaxy fingerprint scanner can unlock the device with a simple tap, just like Apple’s Touch ID. But how does it stand against the mighty iPhone 6’s Touch ID. Checkout the video after the jump…
Samsung introduced new flash storage with incredible read/write speeds when compared to the top smartphones. This time PhoneArena turned its attention to the fingerprint scanner’s performance – which the company claimed to provide significantly more reliability and accuracy – and compared it to the Touch ID found in Apple devices.
Unlike the Touch ID found in iPhone 5s or later models, the Samsung Galaxy S5’s fingerprint sensor required users to swipe their finger over the scanner and turned out to be a disappointment for majority. The S5’s sensor was slow, unreliable and inconsistent. Samsung tried to address these issue in Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge with an improved sensor, but still the sensor was not accurate enough for most.
Samsung used a fingerprint sensor which required you to swipe your finger over the home button, rather than just placing your finger over it, which seemed like the root cause of the problem. However, in Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, the company introduces Touch ID like fingerprint sensor, requiring nothing more than a simple tap. Even the setup process for the fingerprint sensor is identical to that of an iPhone.
According to PhoneArena, “Registering a new fingerprint in TouchWiz is now done in a way very similar to how it works on iOS. You will be asked to touch the scanner multiple times, and a nice, smooth animation will give you feedback, letting you know that the software is doing its work, remembering how your finger looks from each different angle.”
The results shows that the changes made by the Samsung have paid off. While the new sensor found on the Galaxy S6 is a bit slower than the iPhone 6, it’s not just as good at recognizing the enrolled fingerprints on the first attempt. In normal use cases, users “wouldn’t notice a difference,” PhoneArena reports.
Here’s the video comparison of iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 fingerprint scanners: