I love One UI, Samsung’s new UX that debuts with the Android Pie update. It’s beautiful in my opinion, the cartoonish app icons notwithstanding, and it’s a joy to use. It also comes with plenty of new features, both major and minor ones, but if I had to select a favorite, it would be the Lift to wake feature. What makes it fantastic is that on the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy Note 9, Lift to wake makes the iris sensor quite convenient to use.

‘Lift to wake’ + iris sensor makes for convenient device unlocking

With Lift to wake enabled, one can just bring the phone up to their face and have it automatically scan the eyes and unlock the phone, without requiring any button presses. Of course, it works just as well with Intelligent Scan, which scans both the eyes and the face for authentication. I had stopped using the iris sensor once Samsung moved the fingerprint sensor below the camera on the Galaxy S9, but I’ve enabled it again on Android Pie all thanks to Lift to wake.

Sadly, Lift to wake may be less useful with the Galaxy S10, which is expected to ditch the iris sensor because of the new Infinity-O design. Facial recognition will still be available, though, possibly in a more advanced form than the one Samsung currently employs on its devices. An in-display fingerprint sensor is pretty much confirmed as well, so perhaps we won’t miss iris scanning much on Samsung’s 2019 flagships.

What’s your favorite One UI (Android Pie) feature?