Samsung's new flagship devices have both a front-facing 8-megapixel camera and an iris scanner. These work in tandem for "Intelligent Scan", which combine the secure identifying nature of your eye's unique makeup with a camera that detects your face. Samsung believes its iris scanner isn't as effective in bright light as it is in the dark, thus it's included the more traditional camera backup this time. With the new system, the S9 tries to sign you in with your eyes by default, but when that fails, it will use facial recognition. Samsung says the technology is learning-based, which means it should improve its ability to latch on to your face as you continue to use it.

Samsung has officially unveiled its successor to last year's Galaxy S8 flagship, and it appears the Galaxy S9 has a bit of a disappointing aspect. Apparently, its Intelligent Scan feature isn't as good as Apple iPhone X's Face ID even though the South Korean giant already combined facial recognition with its iris scan technology. Two years ago, Samsung unveiled the now defunct Galaxy Note 7 that came with the company's first commercial implementation of iris scanning technology. The company's 2016 phablet may have received a lot of negative press, but the iris scanning technology was definitely a stunning feat at the time. When Samsung introduced the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 last year, it did not miss the chance to bring back the iris scanner.

Ahead of Samsung Galaxy S9's debut, developers have uncovered information suggesting that the flagship Android smartphone is going to come equipped with an advanced biometric system. XDA Developers published a report over the weekend detailing what appears to be a new unlocking feature they found after doing an APK teardown of the Settings app on the latest Android Oreo beta for the tech giant's Galaxy Note 8 flagship phablet. Apparently, they stumbled upon strings pertaining to Samsung's upcoming 2018 flagships. The report states that the Galaxy S9 and S9 will likely come equipped with a feature called "Intelligent Scan," which is basically a combination of facial recognition and iris scanning technologies. Because this biometric system reads both face and iris scans, it offers better security and accuracy compared to the iris scanner that debuted with last year's flagship handsets.

Recent Galaxy S9 leaks, many coming from the ever-reliable Evan Blass, tell us pretty much all there is to know about Samsung's upcoming flagship: It'll have a better chip, a better camera, and a repositioned fingerprint sensor. The S9 doesn't look groundbreaking, but it should be a nice upgrade for people still rocking an S7. But this being the smartphone wars, Samsung can't just let the iPhone X go unnoticed. While it's almost certain the S9 won't have a 3D sensing camera like Apple's flagship phone, a new feature hidden inside Samsung's Oreo beta called Intelligent Scan shines light on a new biometric that many will compare to Face ID. Intelligent Scan reportedly combines iris and face scanning to "to improve accuracy and security even in low or very bright light," according to messages hidden in the Oreo beta.