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Touch ID Deactivation?

B

BlindGoldfish

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 15, 2010
107
0
I don't know if my fingers are just odd, but I'd say 50% of the time the touchID works instantly, but 50% of the time it takes a second or sometimes fails. I'm to the point of just shutting it off.

My question is... if I deactivate touchID, will it still use battery life sensing when there is a finger on the stainless steel ring, and the electricity needed to analyze my print, even if it doesn't actually do anything to unlock it software wise?

I'm trying to find ways to save battery life any way I can as I'm a bit disappointed in it only lasting about as long as my 3 year old iPhone 4 does.
 
BlindGoldfish said:
How do you know?
Click to expand...

I don't. However, if you're click the home button at all, your screen is going to activate, chewing up unnecessary battery.

I know everyone comes to these forums, including myself, demanding answers, not logic -- but logically speaking, if the fingerprint unlock is deactivated, the phone has no reason to scan for authentication. And when talking battery life, it would seem logical that the other action-items that are activated when the screen lights up are where the bulk of your battery is going.
 
The sensor itself is probably hardware controlled. So even if you deactivate it in software, it won't trigger its use but the sense is probably still power driven.
 
I agree that the screen is probably taking up the majority of the battery life. I was just curious being that there are two ways to read fingerprints, and the way Apple uses identify ridges/valleys of the finger using electrical current. Where a connection is made, it is a ridge.

Again though, I have no idea how much electricity is used for this process.
 
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