Leaked Samsung Galaxy Note 7 pictures explain its iris scanner

Galaxy Note 5

If there was still any doubt that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will come with an iris scanner a bunch of newly leaked pictures will likely put it to rest.

Two shots, shared on Weibo and spotted by Phandroid, show off both the iris scanner lock screen and instructions on how to use it.

The lock screen itself looks slightly ugly, with two circles at the top of the screen, used by the iris scanner, and a pattern input option below, for those inevitable times when the iris scanning doesn't work, or you've lent your phone to someone else.

Note 7 iris scanner

The instruction screen states that you should hold your device 25-35cm away from your face and position your eyes in the circles shown on the screen, which sounds awkward and unlikely to be as fast or easy as using a fingerprint or PIN.

As interesting as this tech is, until it can scan your eyes from a more comfortable angle it could be little more than a novelty, much like the Smart Lock feature which allows you to unlock some Android phones with your face.

These images could well be fake, so take it wilth a pinch of salt, but there's now plenty of evidence of an iris scanner on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and we can't imagine it working much differently.

The shape of things to come

Note 7 leak

As well as the iris scanner information the same Weibo poster (23NoRi) has leaked a selection of other shots of the phone.

They don't really show us anything new, but they match up with earlier leaked shots, showing off a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge-like design but with additional sensors above the screen, likely housing the iris scanner.

Samsung has now sent out invites for an August 2 announcement so that's almost certainly when we'll see the Galaxy Note 7 officially, but it's not looking like there'll be many surprises left.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.