The world’s most popular computing device to access the Internet has evolved at breakneck pace. Through the crucible of competition and innovation, smartphones have powered the likes of e-commerce, social media, online banking and search, and created massive revenues for components suppliers from Sony to Snapdragon.
The now common touch screen has made smartphones accessible while biometrics have secured this accessibility. The public’s knowledge of biometrics may remain patchy, but Apple’s Face ID and Android’s fingerprint biometrics are arguably the most ubiquitous implementations of the technology.
Synaptics and Qualcomm strategically partnered as OLED screens have made their way onto smartphones. Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Gen 2 ultrasonic fingerprint sensor provides native biometric authentication in the Google Pixel 9 and 10 and Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Using ultrasonic (sound) pulses to map the ridges and valleys of a user’s fingerprint, these biometric scanners allow under-OLED-display fingerprint authentication at lightning speed with better performance against moisture or dirt compared to older optical sensors.
Goodix is dominant in terms of volume with its cost-effective optical biometric sensors, while it has also developed ultrasonic fingerprint sensors. Its components feature in the new Samsung multi-folding phone. However, ultrasonic fingerprint sensors are still somewhat hit-and-miss as users must align their finger with the rectangular middle of the screen.
This is where Next Biometrics is betting part of its future.
Next has partnered with Taiwanese firm Giantplus Technology to develop a prototype for full-screen fingerprint biometric authentication. It follows a U.S. patent approval secured in November for a way to enable authentication across an entire screen using innovations in fingerprint biometric sensing.
Next and Giantplus are collaborating to commercialize “anywhere-on-display” biometric technology with a view to showcase a prototype at Mobile World Congress 2027, the world’s largest mobile phone trade show.
Giantplus, which specializes in small and medium-sized display panels, will provide expertise in display integration as Next pursues its goal of embedding biometric fingerprint sensors across the entire smartphone screen surface.
Device security and biometrics — do consumers care?
Smartphones constitute major user interfaces for e-commerce, banking and payments, while increasingly a core part of digital identity systems worldwide. It’s fair to say smartphones are the key to a mass of personal information and data. “Security is absolutely important to consumers,” says Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, which specializes in consumer technology.
Speaking to Biometric Update, Greengart notes that Apple has built entire ad campaigns on its privacy features, while Samsung highlights its security platform Knox. Security is an integral part of a brand’s values but the technology has to be bullet proof or as close as can be.
“Apple and Samsung are security and biometric leaders but they have to secure supplies in such enormous volumes — and they have their brands to protect — that they tend to be more cautious about taking a flyer on something new they don’t control.”
Runar Bjorhovde, senior analyst for smartphones and connected devices at tech-focused research firm Omdia, emphasizes that consumers care when something doesn’t work properly or as seamlessly as they’d like.
“From a consumer perspective, security is a very important but tricky component for vendors to position,” he tells Biometric Update. “While research suggests security and privacy are things consumers rank highly, they’re often unwilling to pay that much more for it.”
“If there’s an issue [with security], it’s a major problem. Because of this, it’s something where vendors invest considerably to make sure they’re very well prepared for when their customers have an issue.”
Apple’s Face ID offers less friction than fingerprints, Greengart notes, but costs more in terms of components and the space it takes up. iPhones have had a black cut-out for years while Android phones tend to be more all-screen affairs. These biometrics secure devices, but it’s telling that from a consumer point of view, usability and convenience usually takes precedence. For business, it’s a different story.
“A decent share of smartphones sold worldwide are used by companies, and it is of high strategic importance to many vendors worldwide,” says Bjorhovde. “It can be a more difficult sale but can be at large scale and often with software and services attached.”
“This is a segment where security and compliance are absolutely necessary.”
Phone thefts and fraud are so everyday that Google has built features into Android where a phone will lock if its sensors such as the accelerometer and gyroscope detect the motion of a phone being snatched out of someone’s hands.
In a sign of this burgeoning sector, Californian start-up MagicCube recently secured $10 million, with Verifone among its backers, to accelerate its push beyond tap-to-phone payments and into biometrics, identity verification and AI-driven device security.
Disruption! The cutting edge of smartphones is foldables
Ulf Ritsvall, Next Biometrics’ CEO, commented that anywhere-on-display authentication is a “long-sought-after innovation” following the announcement of the partnership with Giantplus.
The Norwegian company has raised a loan just shy of a million dollars to support ongoing product development. While Next Biometrics is small compared to its rivals such as Qualcomm, the tech industry is littered with stories of smaller companies exploding in size (Nvidia being the most recent and high-profile example) when they hit on a successful product or solution.
Next is explicitly targeting anywhere-on-display functionality, meaning the entire screen could act as a fingerprint sensor. This may not mean much until you consider the rise of foldables.
While foldable feature phones were once desirable, their re-emergence in the smartphone era has captured attention, especially the latest models such as the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold. The Samsung foldable drew headlines for its ability to fold not once but twice, creating a huge tablet-like screen, and for its gargantuan price. Goodix revealed that its main and sub touchscreen controllers and side‑key capacitive fingerprint biometric sensors are installed in the Galaxy Z TriFold.
With the hotly rumored folding iPhone forthcoming from Apple, the category could be the next big thing. The so-called “iPhone Fold” is also tipped not to include Face ID but instead use Touch ID, reports Tom’s Guide.
Bjorhovde observes the “disruption” enabled by advanced display technologies, with the evolution in form factors — flip, fold, tri-fold, front and back displays. Samsung, Google, Huawei, Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Motorola have released models in these shiny new form factors.
“Creating a more flexible and intuitive device that might be much easier to use for all users, such as elderly users or users with motor impairments could be some of the key benefits [of the new all-display technology],” says Bjorhovde.
“Anything that makes it more convenient to lock and unlock your phone will benefit consumers by making it more likely that they will use more secure biometric methods,” says Greengart.
However, there are potential drawbacks. Engineering and cost are major obstacles. “Power drain, costs and display quality remain among the biggest areas of concern for vendors,” says Bjorhovde.
A large part of the consumer tech story is one of engineering and cost, not to mention marketing (something Biometric Update will explore in a future article) — but Ritsvall revealed last April that Next had signed an NDA with a “smartphone leader” and that industry players had shown “substantial interest.”
Next faces the challenge of proving manufacture at scale and cost efficiency, yield and reliability. If it does gain a breakthrough, however, it could be a game changer.
Authenticating a finger on the edge of a screen, or anywhere you touch it, might not sound like much — but with the vast number of touchscreen devices that exist in the world, such small touches could mean a big biometrics advancement.
Article Topics
consumer electronics | fingerprint biometrics | fingerprint sensors | full-screen fingerprint authentication | Giantplus Technology | mobile biometrics | Next Biometrics | smartphones | ultrasonic fingerprints
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