Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor. These three words have been thrown around quite a lot these past few days because of two smartphones; the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, both of which have the feature.
An ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor: What is all about?
Now, some of you may be wondering what an “ultrasonic fingerprint sensor” is and how different is it from the other in-display fingerprint sensor seen on other smart phones. For a start, older smartphones and some new smartphones make use of either a capacitive or optical sensors. The capacitive sensors are the ones that come in form of buttons either at the bottom bezel of your smartphone which doubles as a home button, at the back of your device or at the side, as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S10e.
Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor VS Optical Fingerprint Sensor
The optical fingerprint sensors are the one found underneath the display of most recent smartphones like the OnePlus 6t. Optical fingerprint sensors like the name suggest acts like an eye/camera which takes a picture of your fingerprint through the display and then uses it to recognise it next time. An ultrasonic sensor, on the other hand, sends out waves through the display which bounces off your finger, creating and sending a 3D image of your fingerprint back to unlock the device.
This is similar to how the fishes and sharks in the water communicate with their surroundings. The ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is said to be able to sense blood flow so a fingerprint not attached to a Body won’t be able to work.
Anyway, ultrasonic fingerprint sensors are still a little slower than the capacitive ones but still very much usable. Other than these differences, they pretty much work the same – you place your finger where you’re supposed to and your phone unlocks. Samsung has also added an unlocking animation which kinds makes you forget how slow it is compared to a capacitive one which I think is pretty nice. Without wasting any more of your time, let’s go ahead and make use of the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus.
How To Use Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor
You must have encountered the fingerprint setup page while setting up your device but if skipped it, forget to do or currently setting up your phone right now then you can follow the steps below to get started.
- First things first, you’ll need to go to the Settings Menu and Locate the fingerprint option which should be under Security. Alternatively, you can search for “Fingerprint” using the search bar at the Settings Menu.
- Once you get there (you might be required to input your PIN or Password), Click on Setup Fingerprint and then place your finger anywhere at the bottom half of the display. You may need to remove and place your finger a couple of times for it to get it. You can also add other fingerprints if you want.
- Once that is done then you can now unlock your device with your fingerprint. To do this, simply place the registered finger at the bottom of the display and the display will come up and unlock. If it is already on then it just unlocks.
Pretty simple right? If you’re coming from a device that already uses an in-display fingerprint sensor then you’ll definitely know this not all that bad but if you’re coming from a capacitive fingerprint sensor then you may or may not notice a little bit of delay while unlocking your device using this method.
