You know that bit in that spy film where the hero forces the face of a dead henchman up to an iris scanner in order to gain entry into the secret bunker?
Well Samsung certainly does. The South Korean tech group is apparently adding extra security tech to its next big handset, the Galaxy Note 7, supplementing the handset's fingerprint scanner with a genuine eyeball scanning camera. Which is bonkers.
- What's the best mid-range phone? We've tested a bunch to find out.
Details of Samsung's new handset have been leaked by serial spoiler-of-tech-parties Evan Blass (who recently weighed in on the iPhone's new name)...
The iris scanner - or the front facing camera with some clever iris recognition software - will apparently be used to unlock the phone for those scenarios when you can't get your finger to the fingerprint scanner. Useful, eh? We'd assume that when there's not enough light to scan your eyeball, you'll need to revert back to using the fingerprint scanner. Or even a PIN.
In addition to the new security features, there's a weird jump in names: the last Galaxy Note model was number '5' (pictured above), but in order to have the new Note parallel the Galaxy S7 handset, Samsung is just skipping the 'Note 6' name altogether.
The new Note will also be water resistant - useful for those of us who don't have hands massive enough to cling on to a 5.7-inch smartphone when texting in the bath.
Who knows, next year we might be greeting a new iPhone that takes a blood sample before you can take a selfie.
Latest
Related Reviews and Shortlists
