Samsung Enables Face Unlock on Galaxy S10 5G

Samsung has enabled a 3D face unlock feature on the Galaxy S10 5G by way of a software update that became available in Korea recently.

By updating their phone to Samsung’s latest version of its One UI 2.0 beta OS, owners of the S10 5G variant of Samsung’s flagship line of smartphones can now take advantage of the time-of-flight (ToF) sensors located near the front facing camera to unlock their phones using their faces.

The inclusion of the ToF sensors in the S10 5G — the most feature-packed and expensive version of the S10 line — had many wondering if 3D face unlock was in Samsung’s future plans. Upon the phone’s release in March of this year Samsung didn’t tout the feature too much beyond pointing to the benefits it would bring to the photos users’ could take with their phone.

Face unlock using ToF sensors operates in a similar way to how Apple and Google have gone about their own respective versions of FaceID and Face Unlock. The ToF sensors use an infrared beam blast to map the users’ face, recording the time it takes for the light to be reflected back into the sensor.

Previously, the S10 5G used its front facing camera for face unlock, a 2D solution that is prone to being fooled by simply holding an image of the user in front of it. With the ToF sensors now enabled via the software update, face unlock is now 3D-capable and far less prone to spoofing — though even 3D face unlock methods have proven to not be completely secure.

The One UI 2.0 update is currently only available in Korea through a beta test, though a wider rollout should be expected in the near future.

Sources: Android Central, XDA Developers