11 vs 950: Face–Id / Hello

The Windows phone comes with Windows Hello. When I first turned my 950 XL on, it offered to set Hello up for me. I demurred, and applied all outstanding Windows updates. After that process had finished, Windows Hello had been demoted to beta status. I never set it up.

Apple comes with Face–Id. This seems to work well. I set it up, and tried it a couple of times, and things worked as I expected.

However, I have a particular problem with the Apple application of Face–Id, which could simply be my inexperience with the phone. I want to use it with a pin, so a pin still has to be entered, but the right face, e.g. mine, is entering it. It seems that I can use one or the other.

Second, if a pin gets hacked, it can easily be changed. I cannot change my face. Although it’s more difficult, I presume, to hack Face–Id information, it certainly won’t be impossible. Samsung’s competitor to Face–Id was famously hacked with nothing more than a photo. Thus I am very reluctant to use it alone.

For these reasons, although Face–Id is rather nice, as things stand I won’t be using it in place of a pin.

Still, Apple win this one, if only because they have the advantage of newer hardware.