Samsung’s Iris Scanner is one of the most secure methods of protecting your device from unwanted access. Introduced with the Galaxy Note7, it has become a standard feature across all new Samsung flagships.
However, it is far from perfect. It doesn’t work well under bright sunlight and you’ll need to position your phone directly in front of you in order for it to work. When Apple released its iPhone X, we’re quite impressed with the sheer speed of unlocking even at various angles and distances. For 2018, Samsung appears to be stepping up with a new “Intelligent Scan” feature that could come with their upcoming Galaxy S9/S9+.
An XDA senior forum member had discovered a new feature from an unreleased Android 8.0 Oreo beta update for the Galaxy Note8. Labeled as Intelligent Scan, it combines both facial and iris scanning to improve accuracy and security.
From the extracted animation video, it suggests that it will work in both low-light and in bright outdoor conditions. As a comparison, the current Iris scanner found on the Galaxy Note FE, Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note8 are recommended for indoor use as pictured below.
It’s worth pointing out that the Galaxy S9’s new Exynos 9810 processor can support 3D facial scanning capability for hybrid face recognition. We’ll find out if this is faster and more convenient than FaceID when the Galaxy S9/S9+ launches at the end of next month.
While Apple’s FaceID has a 1 in 1 million probability of someone else unlocking your phone, it can be easily fooled by an identical twin or by your own children. Twins generally won’t have the same set of iris and fingerprint patterns.
You can check out the animation of how Intelligent Scan works below:
