Synaptics: smartphones with pressure-sensitive ClearForce touchscreen coming in early 2016

Synaptics has announced a touchscreen controller that can register pressure. The first smartphones with these touchscreens will be released in early 2016. This follows the release of the iPhone 6s and Huawei Mate S, both of which also have a pressure-sensitive touchscreen.

Thanks to the pressure-sensitive touchscreens, smartphones with a ClearForce screen can implement functions such as showing a variable speed when scrolling with pressure, zooming in on photos or imitating a ‘right-click’. The technology can also be used in games, for example to press the accelerator or the brake harder in a racing game with pressure. Users should also be able to type a symbol or capital letter more easily on the keyboard.

Apple introduced the pressure-sensitive touchscreen for its Watch last year, but has already implemented it in the trackpads of various MacBooks and the function is as ‘3D Touch’ on the new iPhone 6s models. Huawei has equipped the most expensive version of its Mate S with ‘force touch’. Samsung Galaxy Note series also has a stylus, which allows users to draw thicker lines by applying more pressure. Resistive touchscreens such as those in many smartphones until 2009 are by definition pressure sensitive, but they do not distinguish between different types of pressure.

It is unknown which manufacturers will supply the pressure-sensitive touchscreen. Synaptics won’t name names, but does say it made its pressure-sensitive touchscreen controller in collaboration with several manufacturers.