Will the Huawei Mate 9 come with an iris scanner?

While the Note 7 has had its share of explosion problems, it did introduce some novel features, such as its front-mounted iris scanner.
And while it wasn’t exactly the innovation smartphones have been crying out for, it seems other manufacturers are taking note (sorry), if new rumours are to be believed.
Seemingly leaked images appearing on Chinese site MyDrivers appear to show the front of the device as having a second cut-out alongside the camera, suggesting an iris scanner.
Related: Mate 8 review
Of course, there’s no way to confirm firstly whether the image is legitimate, and secondly whether the cutout is indeed for an eye scanner.
It could be that the second cut-out is simply an ambient light sensor, and if we’re being honest, that’s probably what we’re looking at here.
But that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill from churning out iris scanning speculation, and with the Note 7’s recent inclusion of the technology, it could be Huawei is following suit.
The Mate 9 is expected to arrive with a 20-megapixel dual-lens camera, a 6-inch 1080p display, and a Kirin 960 processor.
There’s no word on whether the Chinese smartphone will come with Android 7.0 Nougat as yet.
WATCH: What’s the no.1 smartphone in the world
Would you like to see more iris-scanning action in the future? Let us know in the comments.