While the OnePlus 5 was a great device in itself, it never really felt like a 2017 flagship device. Thankfully, OnePlus decided to roll out the OnePlus 5T, its upgraded brother. While the highlights of the device have got to be the new 18:9 display and the new low-light rear camera, another great feature that the company introduced has got the world talking. Yes, you guessed it right. I’m talking about the Face Unlock.
To be fair, I have to give Apple some credit, for bringing out the Face ID. It is because of that feature that more companies are adding face unlock to their devices. That being said, let us not compare OnePlus’ Face Unlock to the Face ID. Both are entirely different things. While the latter one relies on an advanced TrueDepth camera, alongside a dot projector and a flood illuminator to create a 3D model of your face; the OnePlus 5T simply relies on your selfie camera. Also, while the Face Unlock feature has been present on Android devices for quite some time now, OnePlus has actually made it much more secure as compared to Google’s Smart Lock Trusted Faces feature.
So, is it fast? Damn right, it is. The phone just happens to unlock in a jiffy. There’s no time delay or anything. You simply show your face to the front camera, and bam, you’re in. In my time period of playing around with the device, I found the Face Unlock feature to be extremely useful. It’s way more convenient than the conventional PIN/Password, and equally fast as OnePlus’ fingerprint scanner.
While this it’s super fast, there are times when I wish things worked differently. For instance, the time when I just wanna look at my notifications. I’m a big fan of Ambient Display. While there are chances that you might not use it, am sure you must have just picked up your phone, glanced at your notifications from the lock screen only, and decided to act on them later on. With the OnePlus 5T, by default when you pick up the screen, the camera WILL recognize you, and you’re straight away into the device. While it’s not much of an issue for me, but some users might find this irritating. Thankfully though, OnePlus does provide an option whether to directly unlock on screen wake-up or not.
But the biggest question that we’ve all wondered, is whether face unlock actually that secure? Well, to be honest, in my experience, the device has managed to hold its ground. Unlike the Trusted Faces feature, the 5T’s face unlock cannot be fooled by simply holding a picture in front of it. Also, the way OnePlus processes the image works differently as compared to the normal Smart Lock feature. While the Trusted Faces feature can actually add multiple faces to its database, the 5T won’t. It’ll recognize my face and mine only. While it certainly isn’t as secure as the FaceID on Apple devices, once again I’d stress that both are playing in different leagues, so it’d be stupid to actually compare the two.
SEE ALSO: How to Get OnePlus 5T Face Unlock on Any Android Device
All in all, the face unlock on the 5T is fast, secure, and mostly convenient. While I wasn’t really a fan of Face IDs, the OnePlus certainly made me switch. And am glad that unlike Apple, it didn’t force me to switch to face unlock. It’s a choice I’ve made myself, and thanks to OnePlus’ implementation of it, am genuinely happy with it.
But that’s what I make of the whole face unlock feature on the OnePlus 5T. What about you? Do you like this new addition, or would you rather omit it entirely and not have it become a trend? Let us know in the comments down below.
Abubakar Mohammed
