One of the coolest features from the Galaxy Note 7 (RIP) is back and better on the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

I'm, of course, talking about the Note 7's iris scanner. Samsung introduced the iris scanner on the Note 7 as an alternative way to secure the phone, but it wasn't without its flaws.

SEE ALSO:Say hi to Samsung Bixby, the new voice assistant in the Galaxy S8

Fast as it was, activating the iris scanner was kind of a pain in the ass. Allow me to quote myself:

"I found it faster to unlock the phone with a fingerprint than waking up the phone, swiping to bring up the iris scanner/PIN (or pattern)/fingerprint unlock screen then getting my eyes scanned."

And:

"...it sometimes had trouble detecting my smaller eyes, asking me to "open eyes fully," and reflections in my glasses always interfered with the scans."

Samsung's fixed this complicated three-step process on the S8 and S8+.

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First, it's now only two steps: Wake the phone up by pressing the power button or virtual home button and then look into the IR sensor on the top bezel. No more, swiping up to bring up the iris scanner preview/PIN lock screen.

Second, you don't even need to have the iris scanner preview window any more, which means you don't need to try to line up your eyes with the two circles on the screen. By disabling the iris preview, the iris scanner is now actually useful.

Weirdly enough, Samsung's added a bunch of different cartoony faces that you can select instead of the standard two circles. So you can set up the iris scanner like this:

Line your eyes up with the cartoony eyes to unlock the phone with your irises.Credit: lili sams/mashable

Instead of this:

The iris scanner on the Note 7 was both confusing and spooky-looking.Credit: brittany herbert/mashable

There's also the option to unlock the S8 and S8+ with facial recognition, which uses the front-facing camera to identify your entire face. It's just as convenient and worked just as quickly in my brief tests, but it's not nearly as secure and foolproof as using the iris scanner.

To my disappointment, you can't have both the iris scanner and the facial recognition turned on. You've gotta pick one or the other. Maybe for the Galaxy S9!

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