>I, for one, can never purchase a device that has to take a photo every time I lift it.

iPhone X series is great fit for you then since it doesn't do that. Face ID uses an infrared dot projector and independent viewer to do a 3D read and then that goes directly to the independent security processor which acts as a black box (all cryptographically tied together, just like Touch ID). There is no photo of your face being taken let alone going anywhere. You can quite literally and trivially (as in I just did it right now) completely cover the front facing camera on an iPhone X and it will unlock with Face ID just fine.

If you're just worried about the mere existence of a front facing camera period then you should physically block it or drill it and inject it with black epoxy or something of that order.

>Couldn’t they ditch the notch by having the speaker on the edge of the device?

The notch is pure function defining form where the function is Face ID and a front facing camera. Face ID is a very valuable and important security feature, even if they ever figure out how to get Touch ID to work again through a screen. And a huge proportion of the market wants a front facing camera (as long as it's sufficiently secured, which Apple does a decent job of in iOS). Maybe they'll figure out how to profitably mass produce those features through a screen too someday but I don't see the notch going away in the mean time. Speaker function is by far the least important role there.

FaceID is not a photo. It's a close-range 3D sensor and it does not create a photograph.

I doubt security is going to be mindful of that difference.

Your facility cares enough about phone cameras to get mad about FaceID, but not enough to ban phones with cameras on them?

Your “security” can’t realize the value in features that, you know, make your phone more secure?

You can disable Face ID...

But I'm sure they'll re-introduce a revolutionary new fingerprint scanner soon enough.

> But I'm sure they'll re-introduce a revolutionary new fingerprint scanner soon enough.

I doubt it. Having to use TouchId or enter my code on my non-X devices feels archaic now. FaceId works so well on my X, I often forge the device locks at all. I'm ready to buy a new iPad when it finally gets added.

That has already been done by Synaptics and is used in the Xiaomi Mi 8 [1]. Seeing that Xiaomi copied most of the design from the iPhone X - notch and all, unfortunately - I guess Apple should get a pass when they copy the under-screen finger print sensor from Xiaomi.

[1] https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/xiaomis-mi8-news/

That's what I was referring to. It'd be a great feature. Apple would just nail the design and execution, give it a trademark name, and go to town with it.

Not so sure, Apple have made it clear they’re done with Touch ID, they’ve made enough points that Face ID is way more secure. They would look a bit stupid if they went back on it now and re-introduced touch

You can? News to me! Thank you.

Just don't set it up. You can select the option to skip/setup later and just never do it. Of course you are then limited to using a PIN as there is no other biometric option on the X/Xs sadly.

>Couldn’t they ditch the notch by having the speaker on the edge of the device? I have no problem hearing the speaker with my phone pulled away from my ear.

That triggered my PTSD from watching the Nokia N-Gage ads. That was cringey.

The N-Gage was my first 'smart' phone. Back then, just like now, I did not use phones so much to call people so the 'taco to your ear' pose did not bother me. I'm no gamer either, I just got the N-Gage because it was the cheapest freely programmable phone at the time. It also had good sound and doubled as a media player. In reality it was quite a usable device, all that was really missing was WiFi.

I sold my razer to get the N-Gage and I loved it. I am a gamer and loved the games available to it.