Samsung will unveil its answer to the iPhone 5s in April, possibly with an eye scanner to compete with Apple's fingerprint-scanning technology.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be released alongside the next iteration of the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch, Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, told Bloomberg at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The company's current flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, is the second best-selling smartphone in the United States behind the iPhone 5s.
Lee told Bloomberg that the Galaxy S5 would feature a dramatically different design than the S4, addressing complaints that the previous two models looked too similar to each other. She didn't mention any specifics about screen size or any other features the phone might have.
While Lee didn't guarantee that the Galaxy S5 would have "iris recognition technology," it wouldn't be a surprise, considering how prominently biometrics have been featured at CES. The Samsung Galaxy S4 already has facial recognition technology that lets you unlock your phone by simply looking into the camera.
It sometimes has problems in low light, however, and doesn't work as instantaneously as Apple's fingerprint scanner. Another reason Samsung could be adopting an eye scanner: a government study in 2012 found that iris recognition technology works more quickly and is more accurate than facial recognition.
Samsung could use a hit. Despite the fact that it sells one out of every three smartphones in the world, its profits actually declined last quarter, the first time that has happened in nine quarters.
Keith Wagstaff writes about technology for NBC News. He previously covered technology for TIME's Techland and wrote about politics as a staff writer at TheWeek.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @kwagstaff and reach him by email at: Keith.Wagstaff@nbcuni.com
