Touch ID has been reduced to a bit of the role since 2017’s iPhone X. Of course, it was present on cheaper iPhones and iPads where thick edges are more acceptable, but for Apple’s flagship products – the iPhone 11 to 12 and newer iPad Pros – it has been replaced by Face ID.
This is apparently perhaps not the case with the iPhone 13. TouchID may be back, albeit with a fairly large difference.
In the Wall Street Journal, Joanna Stern writes that “two former Apple employees” told her that the company is considering offering Touch ID and Face ID on the new iPhone. It would make sense in a year when the use of face mask will continue to make face verification impossible.
The good news is that this is not a return to the thick chin edge where the fingerprint sensor lived. Instead, Apple will reportedly switch to a fingerprint reader on the screen – a feature that has been available on high-end Android devices for the past few years, but has not yet appeared on anything that uses iOS.
Interestingly, Apple cannot follow Samsung to use Qualcomm’s super-fast ultrasonic fingerprint sensing technology seen on the 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 did emphasize one thing that can brake anything too ambitious. According to them, any fingerprint sensor on the screen must conform to the security standards of Touch ID, 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 device, including a 120Hz screen (probably called ‘ProMotion’ as on the iPad Pro). ) and maybe an ultra-zoom camera of some kind. However, the periscope zoom camera may not be available for this iPhone 13.
All of this is part of Apple’s strategy. Whether it’s wireless charging, water resistance or 5G, Samsung wants to be the first with a technology and then refine it over generations. Apple, on the other hand, tends to wait until the technology matures before offering a smoother experience for the first time.
This was definitely the case with on-screen fingerprint readers. Anyone who has used an early Android phone will experience a slower and finer error-prone experience than we have today. Hopefully, if Apple decides to bring back Touch ID for the iPhone 13, it will act seamlessly from where it left off in 2017.