Video shootout: Apple's Touch ID vs Samsung Galaxy S 5's fingerprint sensor
In July of 2012, Apple spent $356 million to acquire a mobile security firm called AuthenTec. A year later, the fruits of that acquisition manifested in Apple's Touch ID, the flagship feature on the iPhone 5s. Though Touch ID initially generated a bizarre circle of paranoia, folks have seemingly come back down to earth after finding that Touch ID, by and large, works quietly and works well.
In just a few weeks, Samsung's Galaxy S5 will hit store shelves and, whadya know, Samsung's latest flagship device features a fingerprint authorization scheme all its own.
The video below highlights the fingerprint set-up process for each device while also comparing the accuracy and usability of each device's fingerprint sensor.
Seeing as there are already innumerable videos and articles detailing Touch ID, here's what the video had to say about the S5's fingerprint sensor.
It seems like it's sort of hit or miss unless you swipe directly over the center of the button, covering most of it with your finger. Moreover because you have to swipe starting from the bottom of the touchscreen it makes the process nearly impossible with one hand.
All that notwithstanding, fingerprint security on the S5 appears to work fine while being just a tad less intuitive than Apple's own implementation.
Lastly, it's worth noting that the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5 has a bit more functionality than Touch ID insofar as the former will be available to third-party developers and can also be used to authorize PayPal transactions.
