Before you read on, spend a few minutes reading Jim Dalrymple’s iPhone X first take.
With that as a foundation, read Matt Panzarino’s Disneyland-based iPhone X review. It’s fun, informed, and interesting.
Too much to excerpt the whole thing, but here’s a bit on Face ID:
Going in to this review, my threshold for “success” was whether Face ID worked as well or better than first-generation Touch ID. I didn’t expect it to nail the speed of the second-gen sensor, which is incredibly fast. As long as it landed between the two I would be happy.
Face ID works really well. First, it’s incredibly easy to set up. You choose to enable it and then rotate your nose around the points of a clock twice. That’s it. Second, it worked the vast majority of times I tried it, it never once unlocked using a picture of myself or another person’s face and the failure rate seemed to be about the same as Touch ID — aka almost never. As hoped, it’s definitely faster than the first generation of Touch ID, though perhaps slightly slower than the second gen.
The “slightly slower than second gen” comment is interesting. I wonder if that will improve as users develop the swipe up timing muscle memory. Certainly, the timing should improve with next generation processors.
I experience failure with Touch ID at least once a day or so, almost always due to sweaty fingers from a workout or, perhaps, dirt of some kind on my fingers. Face ID eliminates that issue (my only complaint about Touch ID).
At several points, the unlock procedure worked so well in pitch black or at weird angles that I laughed out loud. You get over the amazement pretty quickly, but it feels wild the first few dozen times you do it.
So important. Really glad to read these reviews, hear the positives on Face ID in the wild.
I believe that Face ID will get faster/more accurate as it continues to learn the face it has been assigned to. Apple mentioned it’s ability to continually learn your facial features.
Also there is a chance it can be further improved through software updates, maybe even adding the option to go “Directly to Home Screen” for those who prefer not to Swipe up (Similar to the “Rest to open” feature added on the 7 instead of clicking the home “button’)
I have Touch ID failures when my hands are too cold and dry, which is often enough to notice.
I really, really liked Panzarino’s take. He’s one of the few that “gets it” in terms of contextual computing. While Apple isn’t framing it like this, Face ID enables a new way of interacting with devices based on attention and identity that will ultimately shape the overall platform and product.
Cast in that light, it’s imperative that Apple gets this to work, and the X is a first, very decent stake in the ground. I’d expect it to continue to improve, and at some point we’ll look back and realize that this whole Touch ID vs. Face ID “debate” completely missed the boat.
Also, he had the device for a week. I think Apple made a mistake letting Nilay et. al. play with it for a day and write takes based on that. Silly things like “notch is ugly!!!1” are based on immediate impressions and, from all I’ve read, go away once you have a few days.
I’m sure most users will quickly adapt to Face ID in the same way they adapted to Touch ID. As long as Face ID is fast and accurate, why should there be complaints about it? So many people have hate for Apple, they built an issue around Craig Federhigi’s Face ID unlock problem at the event and then they expanded upon it as a major failure of Face ID. Too risky, they say. Consumers will be hesitant to use Face ID. Total BS. Most consumers happily take whatever comes as long as it works well.
I feel certain that Face ID will become the standard among most flagship smartphones for both Apple and Android manufacturers. Everyone immediately criticizes Apple for making some change but as soon the product has great sales success, you won’t hear any praise for Apple. There’s always the claims that some Android smartphone had it first but yet no one criticizes that manufacturer.
Nilay’s a click machine. I suspect even the benefits of spending a week with an Apple product would not lure him away from the controversial, sensational take.
Absolutely worth keeping this in mind. Also, gloves.
Yeah, that’s probably true.
There’s multiple stances a reviewer can take. Roughly speaking, they fall somewhere between “do I understand what the product is doing and how well that covers my use case?” and “can I point out all the flaws of the product and whether they prevent me from doing my use case?”
At some level, both cover a lot about the product, but I find the former far more insightful. Panzarino’s take is on that side. He talks about his use case (being at Disney) and what the product does to enable him. I learn a lot more from that than “omg the notch, and the lack of headphone jack, etc.”
I’d like to think the latter batch of reviewers will slowly trend towards the former as they use a product more, but … who am I kidding 🙂
“Day six is when things started getting weird with my old iPhones. I started swiping the home button up and staring stupidly at the screen waiting for it to automatically unlock.”
I can see me doing this. I did the same thing when I got Touch ID to my iPad which at the time was an older one with no Touch ID.
Good look at an actual use case.
It’ll be interesting to see where Face ID goes in terms of interaction.
I can already imagine nodding to answer yes, or shaking your head back and forth for no. Turning a “page” in a book by moving my head slowly left or right. Also, the possibilities for people with disabilities. Great move, once again, by Apple.
Hot takes work better for burritos than consumer tech.