The LG G7 Might Finally Debut An Iris Scanner, And It’s Far Better Than The Galaxy S9’s
Samsung and LG remain rivals in South Korea, but the two firms’ competition hardly seems to be noticeable on the smartphone market in the West. Over the years, Samsung’s flagship devices have mostly edged out LG’s best smartphones in terms of performance, features, design, and overall popularity. This coming 2018, however, it seems like LG is preparing a trump card for its upcoming G7 flagship. With this, LG might finally beat Samsung in a very important metric among flagship-grade smartphones — security.
Samsung debuted an iris scanning feature with its ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 flagship. During that time, the function seemed revolutionary, though many hackers and other tech aficionados were quick to find workarounds with Samsung’s new security system.
The South Korean tech giant featured an iris scanner on the critically acclaimed Galaxy S8 as well. The feature, however, was once more bypassed by smartphone fans, as noted in a Gizmodo article. A prolific hacker, for one, went public and announced that the Galaxy S8’s iris scanner could be fooled by a simple photograph and contact lenses.
LG, for its part, has been pretty conservative with iris scanners on its smartphones. The South Korean tech firm has been rumored to be developing an iris sensor for its flagship smartphone line for years, though the feature has proven to be elusive up to the release of its latest creations, the LG G6 and the LG V30. According to a recent report from LetsGoDigital, however, things might change for LG with the release of its G7 handset this coming 2018.
Interestingly, patents of LG’s iris scanner for the G7 have emerged online, and they show a security system that is notably superior to the one utilized by Samsung for its S and Note series devices. Samsung, for one, uses a special camera with infrared light. LG’s new patent, on the other hand, is expected to switch between infrared light and the rest of the color spectrum, according to a TechRadar report.
#LGG7 Coming with an Advanced Iris Scanner; Patent Reveals https://t.co/8IBGzWAyib pic.twitter.com/R2Ktd30uC8
— DealNTech (@dealntech) December 10, 2017
Another interesting feature of the LG G7’s upcoming iris scanner is that it can adapt despite changes in ambient lighting and the varying sizes of users’ pupils. The smartphone would also include several dedicated contingency features to prevent its security systems from being fooled by hackers using photos, unlike the sensors featured in the Galaxy S8 and Note 7.
So far, the rumor mill has been incredibly quiet about the iris scanning features of the Samsung Galaxy S9. Thus, there is a good chance that the system it would utilize for the 2018 handset would be the same as the one it employed for its 2017 flagship. With this in mind, there is a pretty fair chance that the Galaxy S9’s iris scanner would have relatively similar weaknesses as the security features of its direct predecessor.
If this does happen, LG would have a golden opportunity to beat its biggest rival at its own game. While Samsung might be the firm that popularized iris scanning technology among mobile devices, LG could be the company that ultimately perfects it.
