I like the iPhone X. I love the iPhone X. But Touch ID is faster. Period.

[JonnyIreland]

I definitely think that the speed/success rate of Face ID depends upon calibration, at least in part. This is difficult to explain without sounding a little silly, but I find that it is better to "pose" your face differently between scans 1 & 2... after scan 1, maybe blink a few times, move your mouth a little (yes, I said it would sound stupid lol) and overall keep your face "natural" both during the scans and when using Face ID... its not a staring contest.

Even though it sounds ridiculous, I hope this helps some people.

 

[Bagaholic]

Yes, Touch ID is faster! No argument there. But if that's the trade-off for the beautiful screen then I'm all in.

 

[Ryan1524]

I definitely think that the speed/success rate of Face ID depends upon calibration, at least in part. This is difficult to explain without sounding a little silly, but I find that it is better to "pose" your face differently between scans 1 & 2... after scan 1, maybe blink a few times, move your mouth a little (yes, I said it would sound stupid lol) and overall keep your face "natural" both during the scans and when using Face ID... its not a staring contest.

Even though it sounds ridiculous, I hope this helps some people.

Also try and look at the camera when you’re doing this. That will add to the data of what registers as your attention.

Think of it from the engine’s point of view, the more complete image it can have of your face from all sides, the better it’ll recognize you in the future. Just like our own brain/eyes.

 

[Diorama]

FaceID is slower to open your phone (although faster than TouchID 1 on the 5S), but it is faster in-app. Period.

 

[bruinsrme]

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, so many other similar threads...

I’m not advocating returning the X. I’m not saying any other iPhone is overall better.

But facts are facts.

Forgetting evil twins and other lookalikes, the real problem with TouchID isn’t security. It’s speed.

Face ID is slower and less convenient than Touch ID. Period dot.

Since the iPhone 5S, I’ve trained myself to pick up the iPhone “thumb first”.

This means that historically, the phone is already on it's way to being unlocked, or is already so, by the time I get it anywhere near my face.

There were basically 3 variables in the unlock process... cleanliness/dryness of finger, cleanliness/dryness of the home button itself, and what kind of mood the iPhone itself was in on a given day.

Yes, there were rare occasions where it didn’t work for some unknown reason. But the vast majority of unlock attempts were, for me, completed before I could even look at the phone.

Face ID is great in theory. But there are apparently way more variables in the unlock process.

Angle of your face. Height and angle of the phone. Quality/angle of the initial facial scans.

All I know is I have gone from near instantaneous unlocks to often completely unsuccessful unlocks, something which happened with TouchID on only a very small handful of instances.

I have had FAR more unsuccessful or highly delayed unlock attempts in 3 days of X ownership than I did with TouchID over the course of 4 years.

I’m not returning the X, in the hopes that machine learning will eventually kick in and the unlock process will become as reliable and instantaneous as TouchID. But I’m not holding my breath.

The big takeaway here is that in general, Touch ID rendered the phone ready to use before I was actually ready to use it, while FaceID has me ready to use the phone before the phone is ready.

*EDIT* The opinions expressed above, while factual for me, are not necessarily facts for everyone.

Do you remember how mediocre the first iterations of TouchID were compared to today?

 

[BlueKhufu]

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, so many other similar threads...

I’m not advocating returning the X. I’m not saying any other iPhone is overall better.

But facts are facts.

Forgetting evil twins and other lookalikes, the real problem with TouchID isn’t security. It’s speed.

Face ID is slower and less convenient than Touch ID. Period dot.

There were basically 3 variables in the unlock process... cleanliness/dryness of finger, cleanliness/dryness of the home button itself, and what kind of mood the iPhone itself was in

*EDIT* The opinions expressed above, while factual for me, are not necessarily facts for everyone.

I’m sorry you’re not having luck but wow is mine waaaay better than touchid. I’ve got fluffy hair and a big unwieldy beard and I was worried about bed head and bed face but zero issues unlocking the X instantly inside, outside, pitch black, in the bed with my fat face gravity fed towards the back of my skull, hair standing up four inches, beard all over the place... seriously not one failure yet. I never did the already on the button thing because I have thin prints and even the slightest sweat or grease or dirt and touchid was useless. I had less than 50/50 chance of touchid working, probably way less (in fairness I was on a 6plus which I think had older/slower touchid sensor). Faceid is a huge improvement and easy winner in my tests. And just as you correctly stated it’s not going to be that way for everyone and I’m sorry you’re on that list.

 

[bueller1]

I think you need to pay attention to the position you typically hold your phone in and set up your second Face ID at that angle as awkward as it may seem. I did front and center for my first one then held my phone the way i normally do when i walk and look down at it. That seems to do the trick.
[doublepost=1510144990][/doublepost]Oh and turning off requiring attention also helps tremendously. And reality is if you allow any one to hold your phone long enough to wave it in front of your face and unlock, well then face it your reflects suck.

 

[AintDutchNotMuch]

FaceID is brilliant and the future. Touch ID is antiquated. I do not miss it one bit.

-----

 

[Ezra923]

I just want to skip the swipe up, wish it was an option

 

[spooky23]

Of course Touch ID is currently better. It's not first gen out in the wild tech. It's had time to cook. Not to say Face ID is half baked. It's just new and will be refined over the next couple of years. I'm enjoying my 8+ touch ID as I doubt I'll have it again come next year when I hopefully upgrade to a bigger X (if Apple go down that route).

 

[DNichter]

Face ID has become something that I don't even think about. Working great for me. Sucks that some are having issues, hopefully it gets resolved either through software or resetting Face ID. I am on 11.2 though so maybe try that?

 

[lah]

I was skeptical of Face ID at first, but I wills say after a few days of use, I really like it. Love the way notifications are private but pop right up when I look at it. The whole experience of the phone feels new.

 

[sjperformance]

Face ID has been working fine for me since day 1. If you didn’t have to swipe up after it authenticates you it would be faster. As soon as I️ turn on screen I️ swipe up and my X unlocks. Many people I️ suppose are waiting for the icon to unlock and then swiping up. I’m just swiping up and by the time I️ do that the phone is unlocked. I’ve used Face ID to pay at Walgreens/McDonalds/grocery store/Wells Fargo atm log in. To me it is then that I️ prefer Face ID. It’s more convenient since we are always staring at our phones. To log in to my bank app. GEICO etc. Face ID is one less step. I️ don’t have to press home button for Touch ID. Just open app Face ID recognizes me and logged in immediately. Here is when I️ love Face ID even more.

 

[Hater]

Waking up heaving in pain as it feels like someone has punched you from the inside out. Period.

 

[wchigo]

I keep seeing this argument, and I don’t see how it’s a persuasive defense of Face ID.

First and foremost, the possibility of a better second gen doesn’t change the experience one bit for someone using an X today. Second, X buyers paid the highest price ever for an iPhone. It’s not like Apple cut people a discount in recognition of the fact that the tech isn’t mature. Third, Face ID is marketed as a flagship feature, not a beta product. And fourth, nobody would be bothered by Face ID’s growing pains if it existed side by side with Touch ID, but it doesn’t. They killed a much-beloved feature and bragged that the replacement was clearly superior, and that doesn’t seem to be the reality for many users.

1) True, but there are seemingly just as many out there that are happy with and love Face ID in its current state as there are people who don't like it.
2) And why would they? If anything, considering this is new technology, they might even charge more for it for being on the "cutting edge." People are more than free to speak with their wallets if they don't like the tech, and from what I have gathered on these forums there are certainly those who have done it.
3) And it's not beta. First gen =/= beta. I owned a first generation PS Vita, and then Sony eventually released a second generation which made it lighter and improved battery life, but with an LCD screen instead of OLED. Just because they released a new version of a product doesn't make the first one a beta. And from what I've seen from reviews and these forums, it works a lot better than what one would expect of a beta product.
4) Completely agreed. Honestly, I was very excited at the prospect of "under the screen Touch ID" as that would have been super cool. Unfortunately, it seemed like they weren't able to make it work in time or whatever, and decided to go this route. Having Touch ID exist on the power button or something would have been nice for those that don't like or can't use Face ID, but rarely if ever do we get everything we want. :/

Certainly my post was a defence of Face ID, but only as a technology that will grow and not of the current product. Yes, unequivocally Face ID is slower and in some ways more cumbersome than Touch ID, but that doesn't mean it won't grow to become better in time.

I'm not saying that people aren't allowed criticism of a product they don't like or feels needs improvement. I'm just simply offering a different perspective of why Face ID as it is now isn't perfect but can grow to be better as a rebuttal to the argument made by OP. Take that as you will.

tl;dr - My original post was a defence of Face ID as a technology, which will only improve with time. It's implementation on the iPhone X is certain not perfect and could be better, but the same could have been said for Touch ID at its introduction. The same arguments could be made when Touch ID was first introduced and even to this day I have friends and colleagues who use a passcode instead of Touch ID, which is so much more convenient, for reasons that I don't know. Some people just prefer passcodes over using a fingerprint I guess and won't be persuaded otherwise, just as now there are people who prefer Touch ID vs Face ID. But given time, I hope that Face ID can mature and become as good or even better than Touch ID.

 

[Jedimindtrick]

Bought the iPhone X on launch day. I hate Face ID. It's slower, it sometimes doesn't work, it's just janky. As someone who uses iPad Pros a lot, I would just rather have touch ID on all my devices.

Likely going to sell my iPhone X and get an 8+, thats how bad I hate Face ID.

 

[mac4good84]

Have not used FACE ID yet so can't really speak on that; I do love TOUCH ID but it's all I've ever had. My one and only main concern with ever going to the X is price, I refuse to spend a $1000 on a phone. It's an awesome phone to hold and use as I have in the store and it looks incredibly slick, but no way on that price. I'm happy to keep using my 7 as long as I can...

 

[1050792]

Have not used FACE ID yet so can't really speak on that; I do love TOUCH ID but it's all I've ever had. My one and only main concern with ever going to the X is price, I refuse to spend a $1000 on a phone. It's an awesome phone to hold and use as I have in the store and it looks incredibly slick, but no way on that price. I'm happy to keep using my 7 as long as I can...

And that's a wise decision since the iPhone X isn't worth near $800 let alone $1000. It's a good phone but it won't do anything different than your 7. Unless you want to send a poop to your iMessage contacts.

 

[Phone Junky]

And that's a wise decision since the iPhone X isn't worth near $800 let alone $1000. It's a good phone but it won't do anything different than your 7. Unless you want to send a poop to your iMessage contacts.

And 7 doesn't do anything different than the 6 so look at all the money everybody could have saved by buying and keeping a 6. We all could have put Apple out of business by not upgrading.

 

[44267547]

And that's a wise decision since the iPhone X isn't worth near $800 let alone $1000. It's a good phone but it won't do anything different than your 7. Unless you want to send a poop to your iMessage contacts.

In a sense, that’s not exactly accurate. The iPhone X shares the same iOS, but in terms of functionality, the iPhone X uses gesture controls without a home button, augmented reality capabilities and has an entirely different form of biometric security with Face ID/True Depth Camera. You can’t say the X won’t do anything differently, when in fact it does. How somebody justifies the price point, is simply what experience does the conusmer want with an iPhone.

 

[PhoneMe1]

And that's a wise decision since the iPhone X isn't worth near $800 let alone $1000. It's a good phone but it won't do anything different than your 7. Unless you want to send a poop to your iMessage contacts.

Guess if you bought it for that and facebook/ insta /whatsap and selfies you are right, mine actually earns me a living.

 

[1050792]

In a sense, that’s not exactly accurate. The iPhone X shares the same iOS, but in terms of functionality, the iPhone X uses gesture controls without a home button, augmented reality capabilities and has an entirely different form of biometric security with Face ID/True Depth Camera. You can’t say the X won’t do anything differently, when in fact it does. How somebody justifies the price point, is simply what experience does the conusmer want with an iPhone.

All iPhones since the 6S support augmented reality, Face ID is debatable since Apple is still adding Touch ID to their newest products and marketing it, the gestures are great but they won’t change the core function of the phone since they don’t justify $1000 to upgrade.
[doublepost=1523616321][/doublepost]

Guess if you bought it for that and facebook/ insta /whatsap and selfies you are right, mine actually earns me a living.

That’s great, it looks like you made your purchase worth it.

 

[mcdj]

And 7 doesn't do anything different than the 6 so look at all the money everybody could have saved by buying and keeping a 6. We all could have put Apple out of business by not upgrading.

If no one bought an iPhone 7 or 8 or X because they were holding on to a 6, Apple *might* have to scale back the availability of truffle oil at their campus salad bar from 7 to 5 days a week for a month or two.

 

[aevan]

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, so many other similar threads...

I’m not advocating returning the X. I’m not saying any other iPhone is overall better.

But facts are facts.

Forgetting evil twins and other lookalikes, the real problem with TouchID isn’t security. It’s speed.

Face ID is slower and less convenient than Touch ID. Period dot.

Oh boy, another one of those threads that ends with "fact" and "period".

Ok, so, no, Face ID is NOT less convenient than Touch ID. As I mentioned in many threads before, for a lot of people, Touch ID is just not consistent. For me, Touch ID fails 50-60% of the time. I am NOT exaggerating. Perhaps I have oily skin. Perhaps I have sweaty skin. Perhaps my fingerprints are not deep enough or something. I have no idea. I tried rescanning, adding multiple scans of the same finger, I kept my home button clean, but Touch ID just works bad for me. And, I know this is anecdotal, but for my two close friends, this is the same case. One of my friends reports that as soon as he gets even slightly sweaty, it fails to register (2nd gen Touch ID). The other just has issues with consistency. Maybe it's our climate? No idea.

Also, I recall quite a few posts on the net where people suggest making two set of fingerprint scans for the same finger, to make it work more consistently. Obviously, quite a few people are having these issues.

With Face ID, I finally set up a 6-digit (instead of 4-digit one) passcode, because I almost never have to use it. I works 99% of the time, and when it doesn't it's because I looked at it from a weird angle or something. As for speed, I really don't see much of the difference in real use.

I can imagine someone having the opposite situation. For some reason, someone may find Face ID failure rate bigger than mine and have Touch ID work flawlessly. But the point is: please don't make subjective statements and add "fact" at the end of the sentence.

 

[1050792]

Oh boy, another one of those threads that ends with "fact" and "period".

Ok, so, no, Face ID is NOT less convenient than Touch ID. As I mentioned in many threads before, for a lot of people, Touch ID is just not consistent. For me, Touch ID fails 50-60% of the time. I am NOT exaggerating. Perhaps I have oily skin. Perhaps I have sweaty skin. Perhaps my fingerprints are not deep enough or something. I have no idea. I tried rescanning, adding multiple scans of the same finger, I kept my home button clean, but Touch ID just works bad for me. And, I know this is anecdotal, but for my two close friends, this is the same case. One of my friends reports that as soon as he gets even slightly sweaty, it fails to register (2nd gen Touch ID). The other just has issues with consistency. Maybe it's our climate? No idea.

Also, I recall quite a few posts on the net where people suggest making two set of fingerprint scans for the same finger, to make it work more consistently. Obviously, quite a few people are having these issues.

With Face ID, I finally set up a 6-digit (instead of 4-digit one) passcode, because I almost never have to use it. I works 99% of the time, and when it doesn't it's because I looked at it from a weird angle or something. As for speed, I really don't see much of the difference in real use.

I can imagine someone having the opposite situation. For some reason, someone may find Face ID failure rate bigger than mine and have Touch ID work flawlessly. But the point is: please don't make subjective statements and add "fact" at the end of the sentence.

Stop right there! If he says Touch ID is slow and less convenient than Face ID it's a fact! Period.
My experience with Touch ID is exactly the same as yours. I can't count the times I had to use my passcode for the Touch ID not recognizing my finger. Face ID works almost 99% of the time with no issues of having to lose time to unlock and then fail and finally input the passcode.