Samsung will launch a new version of its Galaxy Grand Prime Plus with an iris recognition sensor, possible this year, according to XDA-Developers.

 

An XDA contributor claims to have discovered firmware files which confirm the device and its use of iris biometrics, while a list of codenames for forthcoming smartphones was discovered within the Android 8.0 Oreo framework of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus was launched in 2016, and the 2018 refresh appears to be slated to continue offering the iris recognition technology which is reportedly being dropped from the Galaxy S10.

 

The firmware files for the device, codenamed “grandppirislte,” refer to an iris scanner driver ktd2692_iris, which may indicate that the system will use a similar driver to the standard ktd2692 flash LED driver, XDA-Developers reports. The 2016 version of the device had the codename “grandpplte.”

 

The Korea Herald reported last year that Samsung intended to expand its iris recognition capabilities from its flagship smartphones to its budget smartphones in order to enable mobile banking, which seems to indicate that Samsung’s priority is to offer biometrics that will provide sufficiently strong identity verification, rather than a preference for a certain modality.

 

Samsung was also recently granted a patent for a 3D camera system with iris recognition capabilities, so Samsung may not be making an either/or choice for smartphone biometrics for long.