iPhone X: the epic fail of its biggest feature

News Corp Australia

DOROTHY of Oz once said there was no place like home and Apple today confirmed it.

The tech giant's new top model smartphone loses its home button for the first time in its 10-year history and it's immediately confusing.

Yes, the iPhone X looks striking and futuristic, with its bigger-than-ever 5.8-inch edge-to-edge display.

Yes, the display's colours are brighter and bolder thanks to OLED technology and a Super Retina resolution.

Sure, its stainless steel sides flow seamlessly on to its front and back glass panels, and its ever-so-slightly heavier body feels well-weighted in your hand.

But how do you use this phone without a home button?

Despite years testing Apple's handsets, I found myself slightly dumbstruck before it.

Thankfully, the adjustments are easy to make ... as long as someone explains them to you first.

To wake this phone, you lift it or double-tap it. To unlock this phone, you look at it while it scans your face.

Moving a finger up the phone's screen will make the lock screen disappear or get you out of an application, and holding your finger halfway up the screen will show all your open apps.

They're simple gestures but it will probably take some time for 10-year Apple iPhone veterans to stop pressing the bottom of the screen and quietly swearing at themselves.

And while this change might represent a mild annoyance, there are serious questions swirling around Touch ID's replacement.



Apple says its advanced, 3D face-scanning technology, Face ID, is more secure, with a one in one million chance someone else can foil it, compared to a one in 50,000 chance with the iPhone's fingerprint reader.

But, in multiple demonstrations, I watched iPhone experts try and fail to unlock the handset with their first attempt.

That doesn't mean it's not secure, of course, but it could mean that you spend more time eyeing off your phone in frustration than just touching your thumb to its big button and using it.


The new iPhones will feature 3D facial recognition.
The new iPhones will feature 3D facial recognition. AAP

Apple's Face ID failed its first big test at the company's iPhone X launch when Face ID apparently failed to recognise its boss, Apple software engineering senior vice-president Craig Federighi.

In front of a 1000-strong audience in Apple Park's Steve Jobs Theater, and many more streaming the anticipated event live, Face ID failed to unlock the iPhone X handset and instead asked for Mr Federighi's passcode.

While it worked on the software leader's second attempt with a different iPhone X handset, some have questioned the efficiency of the critical security feature, which will likely be used many times each day by iPhone X users as they unlock their smartphones.

The error message displayed on stage - "Your passcode is required to enable Face ID" - may simply have indicated that his iPhone X had simply been restarted before the presentation, however.

Apple's Face ID technology is perhaps the most controversial element of the top model iPhone, as it replaces the Touch ID fingerprint sensor introduced in 2013.

Apple worldwide marketing senior vice-president Phil Schiller said Face ID used an infra-red camera, flood illuminator, and infra-red dot projector to create "a mathematical model of your face" with over 30,000 points of reference.

The infra-red image and dot map is analysed by neural networking technology, which Mr Schiller said would be able to track changes to your face over time.

"To make Face ID possible took some of the most advanced technology we have ever created," he said.

Apple iPhone X users will have to scan their face from several angles to use the feature, and will then be able to unlock the phone by simply looking at it.

Opening the iPhone will become a two-part process with Face ID, however: users will have to wait until it's unlocked and then swipe a finger up the screen, potentially delaying their use of the handset.

Based on demonstrations after the Apple keynote, users must also hold the iPhone X upright to have it accurately recognise their face.


Apple said Face ID would increase the security of its smartphones, reducing the risk of someone else being able to unlock the iPhone from one in 50,000 to just one in one million.

Apple is not the only company to try new biometric security features in smartphones, however.

Its major rival, Samsung, introduced iris and face-scanning technology in the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone last year, and again in its Galaxy S8 handset this year.

But while Samsung's iris scanner was considered secure enough to make financial transactions, the company described its facial scanner as a convenience "for unlocking your phone right away" and not to be relied upon for tight security.

Apple event attendees weren't able to test Face ID for themselves, simply due to logistical challenges of having 1000 time-pressed people scan their faces on a limited number of devices, though I did unlock the phone by handing it to a demonstrator who had registered her face.

I'll reserve final judgement until I can test it with my face, spectacles and all.

As I wasn't able to set up Face ID for myself, I'll reserve judgment until launch day.

The new iPhones will feature wireless charging.
The new iPhones will feature wireless charging. AAP


The iPhone X adds more technology to try when it arrives in stores too.

There's wireless charging in this device, and it supports the widely available Qi standard.

It also promises to be significantly faster thanks to a new chip, to last two hours longer than the iPhone 7, and its camera upgrades may not be revolutionary but they appear seriously useful.

Both 12-megapixel cameras on the back of this smartphone will feature optical image stabilisation to limit blurry photos and deliver better 4K video.

And Apple has thrown in a new Portrait Lighting feature that is something to behold. It analyses a subject's face and lets the photographer choose a lighting style to fit the scene, before or after shooting the photo. The results can be compelling.

Apple's Portrait Mode, which lets you artfully blur a photo's background, is also available on the front camera of the iPhone X, which should elevate user's selfies.

Using this, and the natural setting in Portrait Lighting, I was able to make myself look quite alert despite punishing international date lines.

The iPhone X will also let you use its cutting-edge 3D facial scanner to animate emojis. Yes, you can see what you'd look like as a talking poo and share that image with friends.

Ultimately, the success of the Apple iPhone X will hang on the success of Face ID, whether it proves both secure and easy to use.

Potential buyers will also have to get past its price, between $1579 and $1829, and wait until November 3 to get their hands on it.

Assuming all of those conditions can be met, Apple's 10th iPhone looks like its most sophisticated and most technologically advanced to date.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson travelled to Cupertino as a guest of Apple.