The last Samsung Galaxy Note model to hit the market was the Galaxy Note 5, released last year following an unveiling in late August. However, this year, Samsung is expected to skip one digit and release a successor to last year’s model under the name of “Samsung Galaxy Note 7”. Lately, the smartphone has been the subject of numerous leaks and rumors, some of which strongly suggest that it will be equipped with iris recognition technology. However, given the fact that iris scanning has been used by a couple of smartphones in the past without turning many heads, market analysts are now skeptical about the impact the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s iris scanner might have on the mobile world.
If most of the recent leaks and rumors are true, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will be equipped with iris recognition technology, which should technically increase security beyond the levels offered by a fingerprint scanner for a number of reasons, one being that an iris is much more difficult to replicate compared to a fingerprint. However, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will not be the first smartphone to be equipped with an iris scanner, and up until now, the technology failed to impress. While iris scanners are more reliable and secure on paper, in practice their reliability varies according to lighting conditions, distance, speed, and other similar factors. For this reason, some market analysts are skeptical in regards to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s iris scanner usefulness, and the impact it will have on the market.
In the past, iris recognition technology was adopted by the Fujitsu Arrows NX F-04G in Japan, which was released in May of 2015. Iris scanning technology was then borrowed by TCL in China and was implemented on the budget TCL 560 released earlier in 2016. These two smartphones have yet to prove the benefits of using the technology, with the TCL 560 being criticized for requiring up to 3 seconds to recognize the iris. Evidently, Samsung is a much bigger name than TCL and expectations are higher, and seeing how iris recognition technology was previously used for the unimpressive “Smart Scroll” feature on the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Korean tech giant will hopefully have something much better in store for this year’s Galaxy Note 7. The handset should be officially introduced on August 2nd during an official Unpacked event.