Report: Samsung to use a mix of fingerprint, iris, and facial scans for mobile payments with the Galaxy S8

Mobile payments have now been around for more than a couple of years and are slowly dripping their way down to the mainstream, as vendors pick them up and consumers get acquainted with them. Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, a rumored LG Pay, and who knows what else — mobile payments are obviously going to become the norm in the future.

Back to present day, however, the technology is still not fully trusted by users. Yes, it does require a fingerprint scan in order to authorize a payment, but numerous hackers have been successful in spoofing and fooling a phone's scanner.

So, a week ago, we got the first rumor that Samsung might be including facial recognition tech with the Galaxy S8, aside from the iris scanner, which we still consider pretty new since the Note 7 that featured it first didn't really see a lot of use. And that all dovetails last month's news that Apple bought out a company that specializes in face-scanning tech. Could the two tech giants be preparing a foray into seriously competitive facial-recognition features?

Well, according to a Bloomberg report, Samsung is preparing a very special treat for Samsung Pay users with the release of the Galaxy S8. The phone will have a fingerprint scanner, an iris scanner, and a brand-new face recognition tech. According to sources, Samsung intends to use a blend of all three scanners to authorize payments through Samsung Pay, and is said to be working with banks to “help them embrace facial recognition systems”.

While we do appreciate more security, one has to wonder — when do we get to the point when the features packed inside the small body of a handset become one too many? Assuming this is all true, we are curious to see how the user interface deals with all the sensors on board and whether it walks the consumer through all their uses comprehensively. What's your take?