Home button scratches reveal chink in the armor of Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge devices

After years of complaints from buyers that Samsung needed to step things up in their competition with Apple by incorporating a more premium construction, the company finally made the change to metal and glass construction for their smartphones. The use of these materials seems to invoke a better sense of using a high end device on the part of users. Another benefit one would expect is a reduction in the propensity for devices to suffer from “wear and tear” since metal and glass are less prone to damage than what plastic or other materials may suffer. However, new reports indicate Samsung may have missed a beat with their latest devices as the home buttons, which double as fingerprint scanners, appear to be prone to scratching.

Some users have started to report that an examination of the home buttons on their new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are covered in tiny scratches. It is not clear whether the scratches are being generated by contact with other surfaces, like being set face down on a table, or if it is from users swiping grime encrusted fingers across the scanner. If there is a silver lining, it is that the damage appears to be limited only to the button itself as the surrounding glass surface of the screens do not appear to be impacted.

Sources have reviewed the buttons on other Samsung devices and discovered similar scratch damage. However, devices from other manufacturers like HTC, LG, Huawei and Apple do not seem to be suffering the same fate regardless of the use of material for the buttons.

The big question one may be wondering about is whether this could eventually impact the ability of the fingerprint scanner to function properly. No doubt the issue may surface in some competitors’ advertising as well, especially if these early reports expand to reveal a bigger problem. Here at TalkAndroid, both Justin Herrick and Brad Ward have the new Galaxy S7 devices and neither of them have noted any problems or scratching of their home buttons. So it may be possible Samsung just had a bad batch of units go out that are prone to this type of damage. The company has issued any comments or statement regarding the issue.