Samsung Galaxy S9: Why this important new feature could make it safer than Galaxy S8

Samsung Galaxy S9 is tipped to launch at the Mobile World Congress 2018 tradeshow, which will be held from February 26th to March 1st 2018.

As the release date approaches, there have been a steady flurry of rumours about the next-generation handset.

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Samsung has purportedly secured an exclusive with Qualcomm for its upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset – the successor to the Snapdragon 835 processor.

According to the latest leaked details about the new silicon, the Snapdragon 845 could be as much as 30 per cent more efficient than the current iteration.

That boast in efficiency should make a big difference when it comes to battery life.

Elsewhere, a new report claims the Galaxy S9 will ship with a “3D sensor front camera”.

If that sounds at all familiar, it’s probably because the front-facing 3D depth-sensor is one of the flagship features on Apple’s all-new smartphone, iPhone X.

This new sensor system powers Face ID, which unlocks the iPhone X and authenticates contactless payments by scanning the user’s face.

It is possible Samsung has something very similar planned for the next entry in the Galaxy S range.

This is something Samsung has toyed with before, the Galaxy S8 already boasts a face scanning feature.

However this authentication system is currently powered by the front-facing camera, which makes it much less secure than Face ID.

Samsung is pretty upfront about the failings of its current system.

On the Galaxy S8 product page, Samsung says that “face recognition is less secure than pattern, PIN, or password” – something that could easily change with the hardware upgrade purportedly scheduled for the Galaxy S9.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 also offers Iris Scanning, fingerprint scanning, a numerical PIN or alphanumeric passcode to unlock the phone.

By contrast, Apple says its Face ID is more secure than the Touch ID fingerprint scanner shipped on previous iPhone models.

“The probability that a random person in the population could look at your iPhone X and unlock it using Face ID is approximately 1 in 1,000,000 (versus 1 in 50,000 for Touch ID),” Apple states.

Once users have registered their face into the system, Face ID will continuously update its model by saving images after a successful login.

According to Apple, these updated photographs never leave the handset.

Face ID uses these images to adapt to any changes in your face – which explains why the system will not be thrown as you grow a beard, buy new glasses, or wear a hat.

iPhone X gains a much more complete idea of what you look like, thanks to the new images periodically incorporated into the model.

That means you do not simply have to match the photograph taken when you initially set-up the phone.

If Face ID fails five times in a row – Apple requires users to unlock the iPhone with a passcode.

The system them analyses an image of your face to look for any changes it failed to account for and update its data accordingly. 

That means the intelligent system learns from its mistakes to ensure the next unlock is successful.