It has only been a few years since fingerprint sensors became a staple on mid-range smartphones. When this technology first made its way to handheld devices it was only found on the high-end models which were expensive and out of the reach of many customers. The technology has improved and become cheaper since then which is why almost all mid-range handsets have fingerprint sensors now. Samsung appears to be willing to bring them to entry-level handsets as well.
If a new report out of South Korea is believed, Samsung is going to bring fingerprint sensors to its entry-level Galaxy J series. This series has performed particularly well in emerging markets like India so it will go a long way in popularizing fingerprint sensors in that market.
That’s obviously not going to be the only advantage of this exercise. The fingerprint sensor is a crucial component of the Samsung Pay mobile payments service. It’s used to authenticate payments made using Samsung Pay.
With Samsung Pay having been expanded to India, it will only be in Samsung’s best interests to bring this technology to handsets that sell the most in such crucial markets.
The report suggests that Samsung will start mass production of the new Galaxy J series with fingerprint sensors in May this year so we might see a public launch at some point in the second or third quarter of this year.
Filed in . Read more about Galaxy J, Samsung and Samsung Pay.