Samsung has highlighted the benefits of eliminating the home button and moving the fingerprint sensor to the back with the Galaxy S8. The company did away with the home button to get the maximum possible screen real estate for its new flagship smartphone. That meant having to relocate the fingerprint sensor that’s placed underneath the home button on most devices. Recent comments from OnePlus CEO Pete Lau suggest that the OnePlus 5 fingerprint sensor may be placed on the front.
If that really is the case, it suggests that the company is not going to ditch the home button on the OnePlus 5. It’s unlikely that the handset will have an optical fingerprint sensor, one that’s embedded in the display itself, as that technology is not deemed to be ready for consumer release at this point in time.
Lau’s comments reportedly originate from Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, where he apparently confirmed to a follower that the OnePlus 5 is going to have a fingerprint sensor on the front. It suggests that the company’s new flagship smartphone is going to have a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio.
It not like the rumor mill has its hopes up about a OnePlus 5 that doesn’t have a home button. On the contrary, all of the leaked images of the OnePlus 5 that we’ve seen up till now hint at the possibility that the new device’s fingerprint sensor may not be relocated from the front.
