Earlier this week, Samsung announced the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. The company’s latest flagship handsets are iterative upgrades over their predecessors and pack some major internal upgrades and a revamped camera with a variable aperture at the rear. They also feature an improved biometric verification system, with Samsung still being the only company in the market apart from Apple to offer a form of biometric scanning more secure than face unlock and fingerprint sensor — iris scanning. 

In fact, Samsung first debuted iris scanning with the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 in 2016 and the feature was also present on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 released last year. However, the experience offered by iris scanning was always sub-par and slow which was pretty frustrating in regular use. Unlike Face ID on the iPhone X, using iris scanning on the Galaxy S8/Note 8 was not a seamless experience. Samsung also offered face unlock on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, but even that was far from perfect and struggled to work in low-light scenarios.

With the Galaxy S9, Samsung is improving its biometrics verification system by introducing Intelligent scan. Now that the world has experienced Face ID on the iPhone X, the sub-par iris and face unlock experience offered by Samsung was just not going to cut it. That’s why with Intelligent scan, the Korean company has merged iris scanning and face unlock into one to offer a more robust and seamless biometric unlocking experience on its latest flagship. The improvements are not purely software based though. Samsung has also made improvements to the RGB and infrared camera sensors used by the iris scanner and face unlock which has helped in improving the individual accuracy of both these biometric systems.

Intelligent Scan

As Samsung puts it, Intelligent Scan combines iris scanning and face recognition into one to ensure that your phone gets unlocked irrespective of the situation you are in. Samsung has essentially used the strengths of iris scanning to mask the weakness of face unlock and vice versa.

With Intelligent scan, the Galaxy S9 will first try and scan your face. When that fails, it falls back to the iris scanner. And if even that fails, Samsung uses a combination of two to unlock your phone. The whole process happens very quickly to ensure that there’s no unnecessary delay in unlocking the phone.

Intelligent scan is not as secure as Face ID though. And for authorizing Samsung Pay transactions or accessing Secure Folder where one keeps their private data, the Galaxy S9 will automatically fall back on iris scanning.

Face unlock on the Galaxy S8 from last year could be easily fooled using one’s photograph. And despite Samsung merging iris scanning and face unlock into one with Intelligent scan on the Galaxy S9 this year, it is unlikely that the new biometric verification system is more secure than last year. This can be attributed to the fact that Samsung creates a 2D map of a user’s face which simply does not have enough data to distinguish between their real face and a high-resolution photo.

Face ID

In simple terms, Apple also offers face unlock on the iPhone X. However, the company’s approach is more complex and secure than anything else on the market. Apple uses its complex TrueDepth camera system on the iPhone X to create a 3D scan of a user’s facial pattern comprising of 30,000 invisible points. This makes Face ID far more secure than Samsung’s approach. No wonder then that Apple decided to completely ditch Touch ID and only stick to Face ID on the iPhone X.

Apart from being secure, Face ID is also faster and more reliable. And while Face ID can be fooled using special 3D masks, the process is far more cumbersome and difficult for an average joe to pull.

Intelligent Scan vs Face ID

#4. Secure

Face ID on the iPhone X is far more reliable and secure than Samsung’s Intelligent Scan feature on the Galaxy S9. Not only does Apple make use of a more complex and advanced TrueDepth camera for Face ID, it has a more secure approach as well to ensure a user’s security is not compromised in any manner. And the company has managed to achieve this without adding any extra friction or step in the process of unlocking the device. In fact, Face ID is so secure and fast that Apple completely did away with Touch ID on the iPhone X, and it even uses Face ID for authorizing Apple Pay transactions.

With Intelligent scan, Samsung has merely merged iris scanning and face unlock into one but the individual weaknesses of both these biometric verification methods remain. It is very easy to fool Samsung’s biometric verification and the company knows this. No wonder then that it only allows iris scanning — which is more secure than face unlock — to be used for authenticating Samsung Pay transactions.

#3. Apple Pay vs Samsung Pay

Apple is so condifent about the security offered by Face ID that it uses it to authenticate Apple Pay transactions. Unlike the Galaxy S9, the iPhone X only comes with one form of biometric verification — Face ID, so Apple had to ensure that it was secure enough for use in all possible scenarios.

Over at Samsung’s side, the Korean company knows that its face unlock mechanism is not as secure which is why it does not allow Samsung Pay transactions to be authenticated using it. Instead, Samsung Pay transactions on the Galaxy S9 can only be verified using the fingerprint scanner or the iris scanner.

#2. Faster and Convenient

Face ID on the iPhone X is more convenient than Samsung’s Intelligent scan feature on the Galaxy S9. By the time, you pick up and look at your iPhone X, it is already unlocked. You just need to swipe the lock screen away to start using the device. On the Galaxy S9, if you are using iris scanning, you will have to ensure that you are looking at the handset at a particular angle and from a certain distance so that the iris scanner can work properly. As for face unlock, while it is faster than iris scanning, it is not particularly safe and will fail to work properly in low-light scenarios. And irrespective of which biometric verification you use, you will have to first wake the device up by hard pressing the virtual home button area or by pressing the power button.

#1. Smarter

By default, the iPhone X will mask all your lock screen notifications. It is only when you look at your device that it uses a subtle animation to reveal the unread notifications. This approach ensures that even your notifications are secure from prying eyes and yet they are always ready for you to read.

Samsung has not implemented anything similar in the Galaxy S9. All unread notifications can be easily read from the lock screen and they are not masked to protect them from prying eyes. This might not seem like a big deal, but its one of those little things that you come to appreciate after using Face ID on the iPhone X.

Ultimately, it is clear that despite Samsung’s best efforts, Intelligent scan, face unlock or iris scanning on the Galaxy S9 still cannot beat Face ID on the iPhone X in terms of speed, security or convenience. Perhaps Samsung knows this which is why it continues to include a fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S9 as well.