“While [the Galaxy Note7] had been intended to pioneer mobile iris scanning, the Galaxy S8 has seen that goal through, with Samsung aiming to make iris-based authentication an increasingly important component of its device-based payments ecosystem.”
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ have together won in the Best Smartphone category of this year’s 2017 Asia Mobile Awards. 
The awards are given out each year at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, with this year’s event having kicked off Wednesday and continuing to July 1st.
The award must come as some validation – and perhaps consolation – to the Samsung team after last year’s fiasco with the company’s Note7 device, a smartphone that ultimately saw a mass recall due to reports that some units were catching fire due to a faulty charging mechanism. While that device had been intended to pioneer mobile iris scanning, the Galaxy S8 has seen that goal through, with Samsung aiming to make iris-based authentication an increasingly important component of its device-based payments ecosystem.
In a statement announcing this year’s AMO winners, GSMA Chief Marketing Officer Michael O’Hara said they “recognise the most innovative mobile technologies, products and services”. The GSMA says the awards are determined by a panel of over 50 experts including journalists, academics, and industry analysts.
The award recognition should help to further spur the mobile industry to adopt biometric technologies into their mobile devices, given the Galaxy S8’s use of not only iris scanning, but also facial and fingerprint recognition, for user authentication.
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