We have seen several leaked photos of the Galaxy Note 7's iris scanner and yesterday a video surfaced online which showed us the iris scanner in action. The latest images to leak out of China reveal some of the limitations to the Galaxy Note 7's iris scanner, which it was bound to have.
Samsung's usage warnings for the iris scanner caution that when using this feature the eyes should be at least 20 cm away from the iris scanner to prevent harmful effects and that the iris scanner should not be used to scan the eyes of babies. Kids do like to play around with their parents' phones so if you're thinking about getting the Galaxy Note 7 make sure you don't go about configuring the iris scanner to your baby's eyes just because you want them to have easy access to your phone. The warning also mentions that users who wear glasses or contact lenses might face problems because the iris scanner may not be able to properly verify identity. Samsung recommends ditching those visual aids but given that a massive number of people rely on glasses and contact lenses just to be able to see correctly it's unlikely that they will get any proper usage out of the iris scanner. Samsung recommends a safe distance of 25 to 35 cm from the eyes for safe scanning of the iris and cautions that the sensor should not be used in direct sunlight.
Those are a whole lot of limitations for something that's going to be one of the biggest selling points of the Galaxy Note 7, okay maybe not the baby thing, but this gives real cause for concern to people like me who absolutely need a visual aid. We will certainly need to test it out before we draw any conclusions but if the iris scanner really isn't able to service people with glasses or contact lenses then it may not be more than a novelty for a lot of people who purchase the Galaxy Note 7.
