A new leak suggests Samsung might be working on a major overhaul of face unlock for the Galaxy S27 Ultra. The system, apparently called Polar ID v1.0, could be Samsung’s most ambitious attempt yet to challenge — and possibly surpass — Apple’s Face ID.
The claim comes from leaker @SPYGO19726, who says they spotted references to Polar ID in early S27 Ultra firmware. According to their post, Samsung isn’t relying on the typical front-facing camera approach anymore. Instead, the company is testing a dedicated hardware for the purpose that emits some kind of near-infrared polarized light and possibly reads the polarization pattern of the user’s face. In simple terms, it’s like giving your face a light-based fingerprint that photos, videos, masks, or 3D prints supposedly can’t mimic.
If the leak is accurate, the hardware behind this includes an ISOCELL Vizion sensor and a new “BIO-Fusion Core” security module. Samsung is apparently targeting an unlock time of around 180 ms with support for almost any lighting condition — pitch black, bright sun, even indoors with sunglasses on. Masks aren’t supposed to trip it up either.
That’s a pretty big contrast with what’s currently out there. Apple’s Face ID (that projects dots of infrared light on the user’s face) is still extremely secure. The front camera-based face unlock on most Android phones is fast, but still doesn’t count as “secure” for payments.
If Samsung’s “Polar ID” solution actually ships, the S27 Ultra could end up being one of the most reliable face authentication systems on any Android phone.
Of course, there’s the usual disclaimer: this leak comes from the same source that’s had a few misses before, including that odd Exynos benchmark. And Polar ID was rumored for both the S25 Ultra and S26 Ultra before disappearing. So take all of this with the usual grain of salt — 2027 is still far off, and test firmware often includes experimental features that never ship.
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