Is faceID worth the notch?

[Lord Vile]

Apple still has the notch in its iPhones when most companies have moved to hole punch displays or just having a forehead for the camera mount. Obviously the reason Apple still has the notch is FaceID and all the equipment needed for it. FaceID is more secure than a fingerprint and is a lot harder to fool. 
 

In your opinion is FaceID worth the notch?

[NineEyeRon]

Of course it is, after a few months of using a phone you forget about the notice, hole punch or even the old bezel design. Your brain adapts and in the end it doesn’t matter much.

 

It is ALWAYS those first few months that mess people up when changing as your brain still sees it as something different so doesn’t want to ignore it.

[Axeonelite]

I Rather no notch. I'll take a thicker bezel then have a tiny bit more pixels. BUT I will admit this is from someone who has not used a phone with a notch. I'm sure I wouldn't mind it after time but I would try to avoid it if I could. 

 

Then again my current iPhone 8 Plus i smy first iPhone and I am not really a fan and am just waiting for it to bust so I can get an android again. 

[Kilrah]

Not worth the notch IMO. Either standard face unlock or a well placed fingerprint sensor, ideally both is enough.

 

I have successfully dodged all the stupid notches and hole punches on my phones.

[Radioactive Snowman]

Yes it is, the pros to FaceID far outweigh a notch I dont even notice anymore. I've used an S10, 7T Pro and an iPhone 11 Pro so I have a bit of experience with all solutions and the iPhone is my favourite of the lot

[Lord Vile]

2 hours ago, PacketMan said:

IIRC, the size of the notch is purely cosmetic, Apple is able to reduce it significantly, however it was either the notch or the huge bezels of the previous iPhones so... I'd rather pick the notch

Is it ugly? Could be for some, is it ridiculous? Not really IMO since you can use the corners for battery/connectivity/whatev status symbols so that's a bar you get rid of

Will there be an iPhone without notch? I'm pretty sure they want to add the sensors and camera under the screen before launching an iPhone like a Samsung Galaxy

Pretty sure we will have cameras and sensors under the screen before 2022 at this rate

Under screen cameras are already a thing they're just not really good enough yet. Suppose the issue there for Apple is that you also have to get the IR and dot matrix through the display too. 

[Lord Vile]

2 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Not worth the notch IMO. Either standard face unlock or a well placed fingerprint sensor, ideally both is enough.

 

I have successfully dodged all the stupid notches and hole punches on my phones.

Even though the standard face unlock can be fooled with a photo? I like finger print but the in screen ones just aren't consistent enough for me and the ones on the back can be awkward. 

 

Question for you, if you had to choose between a notch or an off centre hole punch what would you choose? 

[Just Monika]

I prefer using a fingerprint reader but Face ID does have a strong convenience factor in that using the feature is no different from using the device (you just look at it).

 

As for whether or not the notch is "worth it" - it's unobtrusive and is not noticeable unless the notch is something you're actively looking for or thinking about. I don't mind the notch at all because there's nothing important that could have been there in its place. The screen space on each side of the notch holds the time and battery/wifi/carrier signal icons - informative but not something you keep constant attention on. It's something you look at when you need to. There's no better place to put that information than on each side of the notch.

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

Apple still has the notch in its iPhones when most companies have moved to hole punch displays or just having a forehead for the camera mount. Obviously the reason Apple still has the notch is FaceID and all the equipment needed for it. FaceID is more secure than a fingerprint and is a lot harder to fool. 
 

In your opinion is FaceID worth the notch?

Depends how useful it is. I find FaceID works fine to unlock the phone most of the time, but is super irritable when used with ApplePay, often going straight to the passcode prompt.

[Kilrah]

2 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

Even though the standard face unlock can be fooled with a photo?

I'm a geek, I'm either at home or with good friends. No chance someone would somehow plan to access my phone for who knows what and be prepared with a photo...

 

2 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

I like finger print but the in screen ones just aren't consistent enough for me and the ones on the back can be awkward.

Previous phone had in screen and yes not reliable enough, but face unlock worked well. New one has the fingerprint sensor on the power button on the side, that's perfect, reachable in all orientations and it's no extra step from pressing the button to turn the screen on.

 

2 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

Question for you, if you had to choose between a notch or an off centre hole punch what would you choose? 

Neither. I never use the front camera in the first place (apart from face unlock) so it's as low as it gets in priority.

 

Old phone - camera in thin bezel. New phone - none

 

 

 

[Zodiark1593]

The notch is largely non intrusive. The only place where it really sticks out (only applicable for the LCD models) is when you’re watching video in the dark where it is dark in the video itself, and you can perceive the faint glow of the backlight. 
 

Some websites don’t adjust gracefully to keep important content out of the notch when in landscape mode, or at least not right away. Reddit will sometimes just throw content into the notch. Other sites never posed a problem, like the LTT forums. 
 

Otherwise, it’s fine, and generally non intrusive. Video content will not be impacted by the notch at all. 
 

Fun tidbit, the iPhone also runs the IR emitters when using animojis. Using another phone camera (or any camera packing an IR cut filter, this is easy to see in action. 

[EL02]

I don't think that the notch is really that necessary. Even though android's way of face unlocking isn't that secure, no one is gonna print an image of my face and then try to unlock the phone. That's just Apple's way of standing out, just like the camera modules position.

[Zodiark1593]

43 minutes ago, EL02 said:

I don't think that the notch is really that necessary. Even though android's way of face unlocking isn't that secure, no one is gonna print an image of my face and then try to unlock the phone. That's just Apple's way of standing out, just like the camera modules position.

Keeping in mind that Apple is the same company that basically told the FBI to go pound sand as far as unlocking a phone goes. 
 

Also, Apple devices tend to be used by people in pretty high places. Think politicians, executives and CEOs. So security-wise, Apple will probably want to put their best foot forward. 

[EL02]

9 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Keeping in mind that Apple is the same company that basically told the FBI to go pound sand as far as unlocking a phone goes. 

Well, Apple was doing just fine with the fingerprint sensor... Also, notchless displays look way better and more modern. Just look at the samsung A80 or Xiaomi k20/30 pro.

[Lord Vile]

20 minutes ago, EL02 said:

Well, Apple was doing just fine with the fingerprint sensor... Also, notchless displays look way better and more modern. Just look at the samsung A80 or Xiaomi k20/30 pro.

Finger print sensor is easy to get around. The particular phone mentioned with the FBI actually didn’t have a fingerprint sensor it was a 5c which only had a passcode, ironically making it more secure. 

[Zodiark1593]

30 minutes ago, EL02 said:

Well, Apple was doing just fine with the fingerprint sensor... Also, notchless displays look way better and more modern. Just look at the samsung A80 or Xiaomi k20/30 pro.

I’ve doubts that either of us is well versed enough to say with certainty which direction (fingerprint vs facial features) yields stronger security.

 

Though tbf it’s a lot easier to unlock a dead person’s phone with a finger than their face. You actually need to look at the device for it to unlock. Need some fancy electrical connections to do that with a cadaver. 

On the other side (Because I like pointing out both pros and cons), wearing a mask and having a 15+ character password absolutely sucks. The keyboard also isn’t the most precise thing ever, which only makes typing in said password a test of saintly patience. 
 

A notchless display would be ideal, though a notch isn’t especially bothersome either. It’s neither “the greatest thing since sliced bread”, nor does it trigger some obscene destructive rage to look at it. Most of the time, I don’t even pay attention to the notch. 

 

9 minutes ago, Lord Vile said:

Finger print sensor is easy to get around. The particular phone mentioned with the FBI actually didn’t have a fingerprint sensor it was a 5c which only had a passcode, ironically making it more secure. 

The 5C didn’t have hardware encryption or security, so probably could be imaged and brute forced. A brute force attack on a six digit (numerical only) passcode is trivial. 

[freeagent]

I don't mind it. I thought it would bug me, but not really. I have an XS Max and most of the time I don't really notice it. And even when I do its not as bad as some make it out to be.

 

Apple Pay is easy. If you don't do the process right it can be annoying.

 

Using my old iPhone's feels like taking a step back in time. Its familiar, but those days are gone. Time for the new.

[Lord Vile]

11 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I’ve doubts that either of us is well versed enough to say with certainty which direction (fingerprint vs facial features) yields stronger security.

 

Though tbf it’s a lot easier to unlock a dead person’s phone with a finger than their face. You actually need to look at the device for it to unlock. Need some fancy electrical connections to do that with a cadaver. 

On the other side (Because I like pointing out both pros and cons), wearing a mask and having a 15+ character password absolutely sucks. The keyboard also isn’t the most precise thing ever, which only makes typing in said password a test of saintly patience. 
 

A notchless display would be ideal, though a notch isn’t especially bothersome either. It’s neither “the greatest thing since sliced bread”, nor does it trigger some obscene destructive rage to look at it. Most of the time, I don’t even pay attention to the notch. 

 

The 5C didn’t have hardware encryption or security, so probably could be imaged and brute forced. A brute force attack on a six digit (numerical only) passcode is trivial. 

Maybe in 1000 years after it locks you out for an increasing number of time. You can break in, the FBI eventually did.

[kaiju_wars]

I don't mind the notch.  At first I thought it was stupid when I didn't actually have any real world use with the (at the time X) and later Xs, Xs Max, etc.

Now that I have a Xs Max, it just... disappears.  It doesn't bug me.  With the screen being oled, anything black, obviously the pixels shut off, so you don't notice it when a video has black bars.  Honestly after not even a week of use, you no longer notice the notch.