Samsung's in-display fingerprint scanner not working

Posted by on

Why the in-display fingerprint sensors are often not working - real world test on Samsung A50

in-display fingerprint problems
The in-display fingerprint feature turned into another useless setting in the menu

A lot of the in-display fingerprint sensors are causing problems to the phone owners who are desperately trying to effectively use their biometrics options.

Unfortunately, it is almost the same story with most manufacturers, including the Samsung A50 smartphone which was released recently.
in-display fingerprint sensor - Samsung Galaxy A50 in-display fingerprint reader

Samsung Galaxy A50 in short

This phone came out earlier this year and quickly turned into one of Samsung's best selling smartphones.

The A50 is a mid-ranger, very capable under many conditions, thanks to the useful features it is packed with. Here are just some of them:
  • Octa-core processor 
  • 4GB of RAM
  • 3x rear cameras with wide angle lens and depth sensor
  • Big 4000 mAh battery
  • In-display fingerprint
  • Large and bright 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with 1080 x 2340 pixels
  • Corning Gorilla Glass 3
  • Affordable price of under $300

Problems with the in-display fingerprint reader

Many people have already reported issues with their in-display fingerprint sensors and some users truly already hate this feature. 
setting in-display fingerprint reader - Samsung A50


Before telling you about the negatives we should point out that Samsung heard about these complaints and took action with their latest Android 9.0 update. 
That is a big thanks to Samsung for taking care of an issue which escalated really quick in the last few months.

So, here is what we experienced right after we bought and tested the Galaxy A50 (which is a very good phone by the way):
  • Hard to detect and record a proper copy of your fingerprint on first place - took more than 5 minutes
  • Have to hold finger on the display to detect any proper fingerprint for couple of seconds (every time unlocking the phone) which is slower compared to the previous separate hardware fingerprint sensors
    in-display fingerprint issue
  • In-display fingerprint scanner not recognizing the fingerprint and showing "No match" almost all of the time
    No match - fingerprint scanner problem
  • At least two clicks/actions needed to truly unlock the phone and start using it - bad user experience
We have to admit that after the recent update things got a bit better and the in-display sensor is actually at least usable. I even stopped the face-recognition option since it was consuming battery and as you know it is not that safe. Let's see how it will go with the A50.

In-display fingerprint technology - video



If you have experienced any similar issues with an under display fingerprint scanner, please share with us more details and hopefully we would be able to address any questions in regards to this problematic (for now) feature.

And here are couple of related biometrics related topics from our blog:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please, share your thoughts, comments and opinion about this product