Samsung unpacked its Galaxy Note 7 phone yesterday, which offers iris-scanning technology to unlock the device.
“We’re introducing iris-scanning to protect your information,” said DJ Koh, president of Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications Business, during the launch event at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
“Parents will love this because it will help keep their kids’ phones safe – kids will love it because it will keep them safe from their parents,” he added.
The iris-scanning technology took Samsung five years to develop. It uses an algorithm that maps the shape and contours of a user’s retina. However, Microsoft offers the iris-scanning technology on its Lumia 950 and 950 XL phones.
Koh said that the iris-scanning technology is a good fit for mobile banking. In the future, the technology will be used to authenticate secure purchases made with Samsung Pay.
To double up on the phone’s security, Galaxy Note 7 offers fingerprint scanning. It allows users to easily switch between different authentication methods, according to Samsung.
Other features
Samsung is offering a new Secure Folder on the phone – a separate folder for documents that is accessed via iris scan, fingerprint or passcode. “With secure folder, I can keep certain apps and content under lock and key,” said Justin Denison, Samsung’s vice president of strategy and market intelligence, during the launch event.
In addition, Samsung announced new Air Command functions for the smartphone’s S Pen stylus that let users zoom in on the screen or translate languages by simply hovering with the S Pen.
Like Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, the Galaxy Note 7 has a dual-curved screen, although, at 5.7-inches, it is slightly larger than the 5.5-inch screen on the S7 Edge. “Today, large screen formats are the fastest-growing segment of the smartphone market,” said Koh.
The Galaxy Note 7 also packs a 64 GB of internal memory and harnesses 64-bit quad-core processor technology.
According to Denison, the phone is about 30 percent more powerful than the previous Galaxy Note.
