Fingerprint scanner confirmed for Galaxy S5

Sam Mobile are ‘confirming’ the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5, quoting Samsung ‘insiders’ as always. The Galaxy S5, which will be announced (unless we have all completely misinterpreted Samsung’s rather obvious hints) next week at Mobile World Congress during their Unpacked 5 event, and will reportedly house the fingerprint scanner in the Home buttonand display your fingerprint on screen for some sexy security visuals. 

This is interesting for two reasons: it means it won’t be an on-screen or rear-mounted scanner and it also means the Galaxy S5 will have the good old physical Home button, a feature many of us were hoping to have seen the last of. According to Sam Mobile’s sources, the same physical button configuration we already know from the Galaxy S4 and S3 will reappear on the next flagship. The Home button scanner apparently works similarly to the HTC One Max – with a swipe gesture rather than a brief press like the iPhone 5s’s TouchID scanner.

Galaxy S5 owners will reportedly be able to register up to eight individual fingerprints on one device and attach to each of them a default task or app shortcut. It is uncertain whether this means you could let other people use your phone but only to access a particular app or action without completely unlocking the device. A sandboxed guest mode like this would be great for girlfriends or little brothers who simply must play with your phone. You could set it up so your little bro could unlock your S5 and play Angry Birds, but nothing else. But this is just me speculating.

However, Sam Mobile’s insiders have told them that Samsung has developed a Personal Folder and Private Mode which is controlled with fingerprints (but can also be unlocked using more traditional methods like a PIN or password). Apparently it will allow you to fingerprint lock your private apps, widgets and other sensitive content. Furthermore, you will be able to sign into certain websites using just your fingerprint and access your Samsung account the same way.

For some peculiar reason, Sam Mobile declined to share any images of the process in action, claiming they want to keep something for Samsung to surprise us with next week. As always, don't believe everything you read, but if this confirmation is indeed true, then Samsung are putting fingerprint control front and center like nobody else has before, and if the whole process is as seamless and responsive as we would hope, then we may be looking at a whole new way of interacting with our phones – putting more digits to work than just our thumbs. I guess now we get to speculate on an iris scanner in the Galaxy Note 4...