Touch ID can take a turn with the iPhone 13, which can help tough biometrics at the age of COVID-19 and wear mask.
This is according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, in which it is alleged that “two former employees of Apple” said Apple is considering giving its next iPhone both Face ID and Touch ID. Such a change would mean a departure from the iPhone devices that only started with Face ID with the 2017 iPhone X and are a feature in the current iPhone 12 series.
But that does not mean a return to the thick, bottom screen panel where the fingerprint sensor used to live in devices like the iPhone 8. Instead, Apple will switch to a fingerprint reader on the screen.
This is a feature that has been available on high-quality Android devices for the past few years, but which has not yet appeared on iOS. Interestingly, Apple cannot follow Samsung to use Qualcomm’s super-fast ultrasonic fingerprint sensing technology on the Samsung Galaxy S21.
While Qualcomm rejected the WSJ’s request for comment, a former Apple employee said the company preferred to work with optical sensors because of their alleged reliability due to ultrasonic technology. An Apple patent from last year set out how an optical sensor can detect fingerprints placed anywhere on the screen.
The source stressed that any on-screen fingerprint sensor must meet Touch ID security standards as it is implemented on the iPhone SE, certain iPads and certain MacBooks.
The bottom line is that most of the new and exciting features of the iPhone 13 have already been seen on Samsung’s excellent Galaxy S21 series, including a 120Hz screen (probably called ‘ProMotion’ as on the iPad Pro)) and maybe an ultra-zoom camera of some sort. However, the periscope zoom camera may not be available for this iPhone 13.
While Apple may follow in the footsteps of Samsung, the above features offer a wide range of upgrades for the iPhone series. Since the iPhone 12 Pro Max is already our best choice for the best phones you can currently get, these rumored upgrades promise to deliver yet another excellent Apple smartphone.