Face ID is inferior to Touch ID, except when it works.
Touch ID worked for me 99.9% of the time. After touching that button probably hundreds of thousands of times, I only had a couple of rare failures due to my hands being slightly wet or similar. In general, Touch ID worked very well and was technically accurate given the context of use.
Face ID works about 90% of the time so far. I've used it less to unlock the phone, but there are more moments of failure because the input is so much more complex. Face ID requires the phone be within a consistent range from your face -- if you take the height of the X and measure that from your nose, that's the closest distance it can use to register your face. If it is any closer, it can't scan your whole face so it isn't sure. This is annoying if you are near sighted, holding it up when leaning over a bedside table, or similar. The furthest distance is quite far though -- roughly the distance from your lap if seated upright (maybe even more).
As many of you have seen, Face ID also only works in a certain orientation. If the X is not basically upright in portrait, and your face also isn't the same orientation, then the phone fails to unlock. As with above, you can't unlock it while laying down on the bed sideways... a regular use case for me.
Even with all conditions met, I still get one-two failures for inexplicable reasons. It might be because of hats, scarves or etc, but this is where Touch ID isn't as opaque as an interaction method -- you pretty much know what will interfere with Touch ID scans, and you also mostly have fingers exposed. Your Face holds more objects, like sunglasses or hats, making the scan failure more likely.
When Face ID works, it is fantastic, especially when you trust it will work and swipe up. The scan happens effortlessly and its implementation with password management is first-class. Given the amount of failures I've had, I find myself waiting for the unlock before proceeding to swipe, which makes it feel slow.
There's so much more to iPhone X besides Face ID (the screen alone is worth the upgrade, and the lack of home button as an interaction is way better), but as a tentpole feature of the device, Face ID has a lot of room for improvement in v2.
(note: I have attention detection OFF for all of the above).
Touch ID worked for me 99.9% of the time. After touching that button probably hundreds of thousands of times, I only had a couple of rare failures due to my hands being slightly wet or similar. In general, Touch ID worked very well and was technically accurate given the context of use.
Face ID works about 90% of the time so far. I've used it less to unlock the phone, but there are more moments of failure because the input is so much more complex. Face ID requires the phone be within a consistent range from your face -- if you take the height of the X and measure that from your nose, that's the closest distance it can use to register your face. If it is any closer, it can't scan your whole face so it isn't sure. This is annoying if you are near sighted, holding it up when leaning over a bedside table, or similar. The furthest distance is quite far though -- roughly the distance from your lap if seated upright (maybe even more).
As many of you have seen, Face ID also only works in a certain orientation. If the X is not basically upright in portrait, and your face also isn't the same orientation, then the phone fails to unlock. As with above, you can't unlock it while laying down on the bed sideways... a regular use case for me.
Even with all conditions met, I still get one-two failures for inexplicable reasons. It might be because of hats, scarves or etc, but this is where Touch ID isn't as opaque as an interaction method -- you pretty much know what will interfere with Touch ID scans, and you also mostly have fingers exposed. Your Face holds more objects, like sunglasses or hats, making the scan failure more likely.
When Face ID works, it is fantastic, especially when you trust it will work and swipe up. The scan happens effortlessly and its implementation with password management is first-class. Given the amount of failures I've had, I find myself waiting for the unlock before proceeding to swipe, which makes it feel slow.
There's so much more to iPhone X besides Face ID (the screen alone is worth the upgrade, and the lack of home button as an interaction is way better), but as a tentpole feature of the device, Face ID has a lot of room for improvement in v2.
(note: I have attention detection OFF for all of the above).
