The Unpacked announcement event for the Samsung Galaxy S8 is just a few weeks away now, taking place in New York on 29 March, and the latest report that we'll see an all-new security feature adopted by Samsung.

The company is reportedly ditching its iris scanning system used in previous Galaxy smartphones and will introduce facial scanning instead. Iris detection is apparently too slow in operation, while facial recognition is a quicker, more accurate alternative.

An unnamed Samsung official allegedly revealed all to a business publication in the firm's homeland, the Korean Economic Daily. He claims that a face scanner will be on the new handset and its plus-sized variant: "Due to some limits of iris scanning such as speed and accuracy, we have decided to add facial recognition to the Galaxy S8. With a face scanner, it will take less than 0.01 seconds to unlock the phone," he is reported to have said.

Apple has also recently been tipped to be introducing facial scanning, possibly on its OLED version of the iPhone 8. It could become a trend across the industry if the tech is proven to work effectively.

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus (S8+) at the event at the end of the month. You can find out how to watch it here: Samsung Galaxy S8 launch: When is Galaxy Unpacked 2017 and can you watch it online?