Report: Galaxy Note 7 to have an Iris scanner

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 is on its way to center stage, with a rumored unveiling on August 2nd, now under two months away. Of the many rumors that have been floating around about the device, one has seemingly been confirmed, though not by Samsung itself. A new report out of Korea indicates that the perennial phablet will be packing a front-facing Iris Scanner.

The news comes via The Korea Times, which claims an exclusive story that specifies Korean camera manufacturer, Patron, will be charged with the task of supplying the component. Said report also recalls the idea that Samsung has apparently been keen on including Iris scanning technology in the Galaxy line-up since the days designing the Galaxy S4, which released way back in 2013.

Indeed the news, which again is not confirmed by Samsung itself, should not come as a surprise given that the Korean conglomerate has already announced the Galaxy Tab Iris, a $200 tablet that is designed for Indian government officials. In addition, even the Galaxy S5 was rumored to be including the technology at one point, as hinted by a Samsung VP at the time. Said innovation was later scrapped in favor of the first-generation fingerprint scanner Samsung secured for the smartphone.

In recent weeks, renderings of the Galaxy Note 7 have appeared which included two front facing cameras, thus ramping up the rumors about the Iris scanner. With today’s news, the addition seems even more sure to appear. The Korea Times pointed out that, “compared to fingerprint scanning technology, which works by recognizing 40 traits on a fingerprint, the iris scanner recognizes 266 traits on an iris, meaning the latter offers greater accuracy and security”, thus highlighting the benefits of iris scanning technology.

It should be pointed out that Toshiba released a handset in Japan some time ago that included such a feature, though from personal testing it was prone to some bugs and took longer to read than a fingerprint scanner. A question was also raised about if the sensor would have trouble should a person initialize it wearing colored contact lenses – with a fake iris design – and then remove them.

What do you think? Is this latest leak the most eye-opening ever?