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If it came down to it , would you prefer a Touch ID on the back?

So?

  • Back

    Votes: 12 7.0%

  • Traditional front placement on bottom bezel

    Votes: 159 93.0%
  • Total voters
    171
tekjunkie said:
The only thing that needs to be on the back of the phone are logos camera flash and speaker port. I dont need any reason whatsoever to look at the back of the phone. I always thought putting stuff on the back of the phone was the dumbest idea ever. The screen would be the 2nd best place.
Click to expand...
Have you ever actually owned a phone with a back fingerprint scanner? If not, saying something is "the dumbest idea ever" is dumb. Having it on the front has pros, but so does having it on the back. When you pick up a phone, your finger naturally is placed to quickly press down on the upper middle of the phone. Plus, it allows you to remove the bottom chin and either put a stereo speaker, or decrease the screen/bezel ratio.

I owned a Nexus 6P, 5X and many LG G phones. The back fingerprint scanner is fantastic and works well, not once have I had to look at the back to know where to put my finger, it always lands right on it and instantly unlocks. Plus, you don't need to push down like you do on the iPhone. When you place your finger on it, you get brought to the homescreen.

The only thing I like about having it on the front is it's easier to unlock when on a table.
 
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geoff5093 said:
Have you ever actually owned a phone with a back fingerprint scanner? If not, saying something is "the dumbest idea ever" is dumb. Having it on the front has pros, but so does having it on the back. When you pick up a phone, your finger naturally is placed to quickly press down on the upper middle of the phone. Plus, it allows you to remove the bottom chin and either put a stereo speaker, or decrease the screen/bezel ratio.

I owned a Nexus 6P, 5X and many LG G phones. The back fingerprint scanner is fantastic and works well, not once have I had to look at the back to know where to put my finger, it always lands right on it and instantly unlocks. Plus, you don't need to push down like you do on the iPhone. When you place your finger on it, you get brought to the homescreen.

The only thing I like about having it on the front is it's easier to unlock when on a table.
Click to expand...
Yes I have. Hated it. Thanks
 
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As having owned all the iPhones, the LG G3, G4, all of the Notes and Galaxies, and the Nexus 5X and 6P, here is my take.

If the phone is 5" or smaller such as the 5X, GS7, 6S, 7, etc, it is easier to have the fingerprint scanner on the front, IMHO. While the larger phones, such as the iPhone plus models, or the Note 7, or the Nexus 6P, the fingerprint scanner on the back would work best. Being that the phone is much larger, having the scanner 2/3rd's of the way up on the back of the phone and in the middle makes my index finger land almost perfectly on it and I don't feel like my thumb is straining to reach the scanner on the front.

I honestly love the scanner on the back, at least when it comes to the larger phones. Also love the 6P's method of simply resting your finger on the scanner to unlock the phone. Android/Huawei gets this right. On screen navigation buttons or home buttons on the front, and static fingerprint scanner on the back. One thing I would love to see implemented, however, is being able to use the scanner on the back as a sort of trackball or scrolling device. Simply brush your finger over the scanner, up and down, to scroll webpages and the like.

If Apple wants to clean up those bezels, it would serve them well to put TouchID on the back and an onscreen homebutton with a low opacity on the front or a capacitive style small homebutton on the bottom bezel ala Samsung phones.
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Setarip said:
TouchID on the front is perfect imo. Advantages include: being able to unlock your phone when it's lying flat on a desk, multiple finger prints can be registered and used comfortably, makes more ergonomic sense.

I guess my last point is very subjective. Since Apple Pay is two quick taps of the home button,it makes more sense for it to be on the front then on the back. The touchid/home button are dual purpose so it's a much smarter design as well. The only reason google is doing it on the back is to obviously avoid patent infringement and to not make a 100% iPhone copy. The pixel phones really are about 90% a straight up iPhone 6 copy.

One other thing, they went with a design that has 40% of the back glass to incorporate the finger print scanner. Yuck. And good luck when you drop your phone and have to worry about not only shattering your screen, but your finger print scanner as well.

I don't think Apple has a thing to worry about this generation of phones. Notice how during the keynotes Google and Samsung almost have to mention Apple in some way or another(whether to mention why they think their design is better, or to poke fun), Apple does not mention any other competitor during theirs. Apple knows they are the leader in the industry, and they clearly arent concerned with the copy cats.

What's that saying? Copying is a sincere form of flattery. Makes sense.
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The 5X and 6P don't have glass backs around their scanners. I'm not sure why there is glass on the back of the new Pixel phones, but I assure you, your "assumption" of needing it for the fingerprint scanner is wrong.

You say the only reason for putting it on the back is to avoid patent infringement, well I guess I'll let Samsung, Motonova/Lerola, and others know to watch out for Apple and their patent lawsuits.

I'll give you the Pixel phones on the sides and fronts look way too much like the 6 design. Typical HTC.

I also assure you Apple has copied plenty in it's mobile tech world and after 6 to 7 years of smartphones being around I would have believed that no one would have their blinders on this much.


Oh and about that Apple Pay. With the Nexus 6P, you virtually just have to rest your finger on the scanner which wakes and unlocks the phone and hold it up to the pay station to pay. So again, less steps/processes.

I get it, you're an Apple fan, and good for you. I appreciate the competition and all things tech as therefore I don't come off as a fanboi of any camp and am blinded by truly better experiences or ideas that one may have over the other.
 
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Front definitely, I'd rather have the big bottom bezel than the reader on the back, of the phones I've seen and handled with them on the rear it just looks, wrong, and I don't like that my fingers are always hitting it. I'm just not a fan of that placement.
 
For the people who are saying in the screen, have we thought about how glass screen protection may impact that?
 
Ideally, there is no button. The phone senses the distinct very weak magnetic field put by human, all one needs to to pick up the phone and it knows who picked it up. :)
 
The front make the most sense for me. I use my phone everyday day in a mount in the car. Using the home button would be difficult to say the least anywhere else.
 
Not on the back. I find that it's one smooth movement to lift it off a surface with the thumb on the button in front.
 
I haven't tried it on the back, maybe it's awesome, but I just don't see it being a great experience. I just tried pretending the apple logo was a sensor and it's a little bit awkward to try and position my finger right onto it. On the other side it's really intuitive to rest a thumb. I think it should just stay where it's at until they can either A) get it where the screen is the sensor or B) find a better alternative to fingerprints all together.
 
I wouldn't mind since i got a Nexus 6p im already used to it. I would be ok with it but under 1 condition of having 2 front stereo speakers
 
How do I unlock my phone when it's on my desk or on my dock if the scanner is on the back?
 
Setarip said:
TouchID on the front is perfect imo. Advantages include: being able to unlock your phone when it's lying flat on a desk, multiple finger prints can be registered and used comfortably, makes more ergonomic sense.

I guess my last point is very subjective. Since Apple Pay is two quick taps of the home button,it makes more sense for it to be on the front then on the back. The touchid/home button are dual purpose so it's a much smarter design as well. The only reason google is doing it on the back is to obviously avoid patent infringement and to not make a 100% iPhone copy. The pixel phones really are about 90% a straight up iPhone 6 copy.

One other thing, they went with a design that has 40% of the back glass to incorporate the finger print scanner. Yuck. And good luck when you drop your phone and have to worry about not only shattering your screen, but your finger print scanner as well.

I don't think Apple has a thing to worry about this generation of phones. Notice how during the keynotes Google and Samsung almost have to mention Apple in some way or another(whether to mention why they think their design is better, or to poke fun), Apple does not mention any other competitor during theirs. Apple knows they are the leader in the industry, and they clearly arent concerned with the copy cats.

What's that saying? Copying is a sincere form of flattery. Makes sense.
Click to expand...
Apple should know, without Samsung there is no Plus model of the iPhone.
 
This is stupid to have it on the back, button or not it's way more logical to have touchID on the front!
 
Rackness01 said:
The front make the most sense for me. I use my phone everyday day in a mount in the car. Using the home button would be difficult to say the least anywhere else.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's another thing I have issue with when the home button/sensor is on the back. As soon as the back of the device is obstructed in some way, be it a car cradle, desktop dock, lying on the coffee table or whatever. You then need to implement something to wake and unlock the device from the front of the device as well. So that the user doesn't need to remove the device to gain access.

Just seems like an odd place for something so important to be and it's not as if the amount of people who use docks/cradles are a small market. You need only look at the vast range of products from a great many manufacturers to see how large that market is.

Obviously there are people who don't have issues with it and that's fine, we've all got our preferences. But I think to appeal to the largest market, it needs to be on the front and I sincerely hope Apple never shifts it round to the back.
 
geoff5093 said:
Have you ever actually owned a phone with a back fingerprint scanner? If not, saying something is "the dumbest idea ever" is dumb. Having it on the front has pros, but so does having it on the back. When you pick up a phone, your finger naturally is placed to quickly press down on the upper middle of the phone. Plus, it allows you to remove the bottom chin and either put a stereo speaker, or decrease the screen/bezel ratio.

I owned a Nexus 6P, 5X and many LG G phones. The back fingerprint scanner is fantastic and works well, not once have I had to look at the back to know where to put my finger, it always lands right on it and instantly unlocks. Plus, you don't need to push down like you do on the iPhone. When you place your finger on it, you get brought to the homescreen.

The only thing I like about having it on the front is it's easier to unlock when on a table.
Click to expand...
Do you understand that bottom hides some other stuff not just a fingerprint reader? You can just remove it.
 
TouchID in the back would really limit usefulness down to one finger per hand making it really awkward to use your thumbs.
 
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It's a stupid location for fingerprint scanner. You can't use a good case without making a hole on the back and you would be limited to index or middle fingesr to scan while holding. And if you place your phone faceup you can't unlock the phone. Google can't come up with a better location they think it can be competitive with Pixel phone?
 
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