if someone has an x, and doesn't know that upon a non-recognition you can swipe up or just off-the-screen momentarily and re-try the faceid, (sometimes it even retries just by shaking it a moment) -- then, yeah, you are using it wrong. take a second to understand your $900 handheld computer with amazing security before bitching about how it doesn't recognize your face in bright sun or when you're on your side -- laughable.
for the small handful of times my face didn't get recognized (usually i have the phone held way too low, like by my waist, accidentally - quick swipe and lift higher and i'm in, time elapsed: about 600ms...) there are ten, no, a hundred times that many instances where the phone performed miraculously, recognizing me in bright flashing dance lights; in a hat and sunglasses; in many hats and many sunglasses, regular glasses, scarf, no scarf...; in the rain; in the snow; so quickly in a cab, in a store, in an elevator, on the steps; in pitch-black in the bathroom; from like 6 feet away and way off to the side; i could go on for days...... the thing is amazing. as usual.
to bit*h about the couple times you got it to mess up is... well, your life is what you make it. don't forget on default settings it's looking for you to direct your eyes at the camera to unlock, so gotta glance its way at the same time. this can be turned off if desired. i found it poses no hindrance to quick functioning and accurate usage while upping the level of security and timeliness quite a bit. thanks to first touch- and now face-id i've had a 12 digit alpha passcode for a few years now, and the revelation of brute force type boxes like graykey loses me not one minute of sleep -- sure fellas, have at it. knock yourself out. i'll be over here.