Rumor: Apple puts Touch ID in Power button for Spring 2021 iPhone

Apple plans to release an iPhone in a year with an LCD and a Touch ID fingerprint scanner in the Power button. The move should allow for smaller bezels on the smartphone, claims analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Securities.

It is a regular capacitive scanner, reports 9to5Mac based on a report by Kuo. It would be the first time that Apple would have to switch to a new fingerprint scanner shape; iPhones, iPads and MacBooks with Touch ID all have round or square shapes, but they wouldn’t fit the Power button on the side of a smartphone.

Many manufacturers of other smartphones already use a fingerprint scanner on the side of a device. Sony has been doing this in its Xperia Z phones since 2015 and many models from other manufacturers have now appeared, including Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi.

Placing the fingerprint scanner in the Power button, just like Touch ID in the Home button, means that users can take the phone out of standby and unlock it with a gesture. Apple has used Face ID facial recognition on iPhones in recent years.

The iPhone that should be released in the spring of 2021 should have a screen between 5.5″ and 6.1″; that is about the size of the iPhone X, XS and 11 Pro, all three of which have a 5.8″ display. The phone is said to have an LCD, which according to 9to5Mac indicates that it is a cheaper model. the Power button would also allow for a smaller notch in the screen.

Apple would like to release a cheaper model at the beginning of the year this spring for the first time since 2016. This ‘iPhone 9’ or ‘iPhone SE 2’ would be an iPhone 8 with new parts in it. Apple released the iPhone SE in March 2016, an iPhone 5s with new parts. According to Kuo, the manufacturer would now like to release new iPhones twice a year.

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, with fingerprint scanner in the Power button