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The Galaxy S8's face-scanning feature might make you forget about its misplaced fingerprint scanner

The Galaxy S8's face-scanning feature might make you forget about its misplaced fingerprint scanner

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Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 will have multiple ways to authenticate your device. It’s got a fingerprint sensor, an iris scanner, old-fashioned PINs, and now, a face scanner. Today the company announced its face-scanning feature, which it says will be its most convenient way to access your device. It’s fast and works from a distance, unlike the iris scanner, which requires you to put the phone close to your face to unlock it. It’s basically Windows Hello for your Samsung phone.

This is also supposed to be the weakest form of authentication security-wise, so you won’t be able to use it for purchases, either through Samsung Pay or Android Pay. For that, you’ll need to rely on your current method to verify your identity. Can it be spoofed with a photo? We aren’t sure, but look out for our review where we’ll definitely put the scanner to the test.

The face-scanning convenience might end up making up for Samsung’s poor fingerprint scanner placement. It’s now directly next to the camera on the back of the phone, which is definitely going to result in unintentional fingerprints on the camera. Get used to face scanning, I guess, to keep your phone clean.

Developing. Check out our Samsung Galaxy S8 live blog for the latest updates and our Samsung hub page for all of the news!