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Fingerprint scanner: gimmick or god send?

I wasn't sold at first but now love having my phone locked and being able to unlock it without even looking at the screen. I mean you can unlock your phone before it comes out of your pocket.

I really wish individual apps like banking and website passwords would link to it soon.
 
I just got a 5s a few days ago and I haven't set this feature up yet. Pretty much the passcode has sufficed for me on my Mini and ipt5 so I am not sure I will ever use it to tell the truth. The passcode takes seconds and never bothered me any time I had to type it in. And it always worked! :)
 
Personally I think it's superb, it works flawlessly to the point where I forget it's there, by that I mean when I wake up my 5s I use the home button and the sensor unlocks my phone before I even remove my thumb from it, I confess i leave my thumb on the home button for a fraction of a second longer but even so it's damn quick.

I never bothered with lock codes on my old iPhone 4S because I found it an effort to input the code, the touch Id is sensor is almost seamless.

So yeah I'd say it's god send ...
 
Loving the fp-scanner.

I've only found it has issues reading my fingers when I'm at the gym and my hands get sweaty. So I have to type in my rather long password quite frequently there. I use my phone for tracking.

I haven't tried applying several scan slots to one finger though, but will definitely do that to see if it fixes the issue.
 
I set it up today and while I only tried it a few times to unlock the 5s and then install an app, the feature worked perfectly.
 
I love using it! Before, I never kept my phone locked because I was so, so sick of typing in my passcode every single time I needed to access it. With the fingerprint scanner, it's so much easier. If only there were more scan slots so I can add my left hand fingerprints to it! (I scanned all the prints for my right hand already)
 
Touch ID total fail

I upgraded from a 5 to a 5s in large part because of touch ID.

The short of it, for me, is:

I've tried scans of different fingers,
I've tried multiple scans of one finger,
I've been through 3 phones (Original, one to 'fix' touch ID, another after complete bricking.)

Consistently, touch ID works great for about a day or two, then it starts to fail.
I spend more time attempting to engage Touch ID than if I just used the pass code.

I suppose it could be something about me and my fingers, but it doesn't explain why it works for a couple days then fails.

I really wanted it to work. :-(
 
Fingerprint scanner: gimmick or god send?

I have the same problem. But doubt it's a hardware thing and I've not bothered changing the phone. I just have to put the code in on occasion for some of the day

I had the 4. I don't know if I'd had a 5 that id have upgraded just for this scanner. In fact I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have in fairness
 
carjakester said:
i think it is a lot easier than even swiping to unlock, usually you press the home button to wake the phone anyways. you just keep your finger there for a split second more and boom, you're in.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Anything that makes life easier is usually going to be popular.
 
I started to have a problem after I put a 3 layer case on the 5s for protection and to give it a better feel as I have fairly large hands. It has added some bulk and thickness but should this matter? When I set up this feature, the 5s was naked.
 
Just got my 5s two days ago and today I turned off Touch ID. I think the concept is fine, but in practice it works poorly for me. I work with my hands a lot, so maybe my fingers are hard to scan? Also, skin can get very dry in the winter, then at times it is wet (like after doing the dishes).

I would say I got about a 60% to 70% sucess rate with Touch ID, but even then it usually takes multiple tries. I have scanned three different fingers.

The end result is just frustrating. What I especially dislike is that you are forced to require the passcode immediately when you enable touch ID. On my older iPhones I always had that set to 4 hours, so they opened immediately with a swipe unless I hadn't used them for awhile.

With touch ID I always need to try a few times for it to open, and sometimes need to enter a passcode. That's just a pain, so I'm leaving it off unless I get into a situation (while travelling maybe) where I want the phone to always require a passcode.
 
There is a small percentage of the population that will have issues with the scanner simply because their fingerprints aren't compatible.
 
Why are you forced to require the passcode immediately when touch ID is enabled? If I could set a longer time for that I would be pretty happy with the fingerprint scanner.
 
since having my iphone 5s i think ive used swipe to unlock maybe twice?

always use the finger print scanner to unlock now, so much quicker!
 
Best feature ever.

I don't need to type the 6 character password with letters and numbers since I have my work email on my phone anymore.

So very happy. Was expecting it to be a gimmick, but was proved wrong.
 
I went through the process again with the 5s naked, put on Apple's leather case afterwards and it works. I removed that case and tried one with a larger bumper and it fails.

Glad I like the leather case! :)
 
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