>I shouldn't be surprised, but the reporting on this makes it sound way different than the actual research. Specifically, none of the research appears to have been performed on, or tested against ACTUAL SMARTPHONE implementations
That is exactly what the article says. Specifically:
The researchers did not test their approach with real phones, and other security experts said the match rate would be significantly lower in real-life conditions.
and
“To really know what the impact would be on a cellphone, you’d have to try it on the cellphone,” she said.
and
Dr. Ross acknowledged the limitations of the work.
Half of the article is about the limitations of the approach the paper used, so I fail to understand your criticism of the reporting.