Samsung Galaxy Nexus Video: Camera, Dictation Android 4.0 OMG - Face 2 Galaxy Note Noticed

Face Unlock Samsung Galaxy NexuThe Samsung Galaxy Nexus made an appearance in Jakarta at a Galaxy Note release event and Soyacincau.com was nice enough to video the new super smartphone doing some tricks and Android 4.0 features.  There was a  glitch in the face recognition department (videos follow).

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus release date has not been announced, yet, in the United States it could later this month or a little bit later this year.  It is not expected in Malaysia until next year.

The announcer* from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia demonstrates that taking photos is super fast by clicking repeatedly with his thumb, showing the zero shutter lag on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  The photos look very good too.

He shows the clean modern interface and new notification tray.   There are no hard buttons, the buttons on the screen look very clear.   The multitasking tray is responsive.  The voice dictation feature includes many languages.  Most features are very responsive and fast except for when he talks to it or shows it his photo.

The voice dictation demo in Malaysian didn't work in the noisy room the first two times.  The third time appeared to work better.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus keyboard is easy to use with great haptic feedback.     He shows how he set up the face unlock.  The Face Unlock setup screen shows:

  • Face unlock is less secure than a pattern, PIN or password.
  • Someone who looks similar to you could unlock your phone.
  • The data used to identify your face is kept private on the phone.

As an alternative to face unlock is that you can set up a swipe pattern to unlock the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.


Fast forward to the next video.  He gets a question from Twitter, asking if the unlock will work with a photo,  He didn't have a paper photo but a Samsung Galaxy Note.

So what then  happens when a Samsung Galaxy Note with photo his face, comes face to face to Samsung Galaxy Nexus programmed to unlock by his face?

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus unlocks and recognizes his face on the Galaxy Note.  It works three times.

"Just to clarify, the Galaxy Nexus in the video was setup to recognise my real face and not the picture taken using the Galaxy Note. See video link for more info. Apologies for the confusion," Soya wrote.

Note: *We tried to find out the name of the announcer on the website he is listed as either Soyaincau or ccsoya.

We also hope that this revelation of the face unlock flaw doesn't delay the release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Full demonstration of Samsung Galaxy Nexus from

Face Unlock Punked & Spoofed