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Comment by vortico | Hacker News Reader

A beautiful solution to a completely arbitrary problem that they created. Much like needing a dongle to solve their created problem of removing the headphone port. Or needing updates to their operating systems to solve the problem they created with batteries. Are they still able to solve real problems now, instead of those created by themselves?

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If you're talking about the notch vs. touchid, then no, I vastly prefer the notch/faceid and can't wait for all my apple products to have it.

Why? Simple user experience. I don't want to rest my thumb (or any finger) to unlock my phone before I select where I want to go. Screen turns on, notifications are present, phone is unlocked and my finger's first gesture is to select which notification to goto. That whole same user experience with 1 less motion is gold to me.

I had an iPhone X for about a week but didn’t end up liking it. It ended up being too big, more than anything.

However, I want Face ID back. I want gestures back. Both of those were fantastic. I can’t wait to see what they have this year.

> It ended up being too big, more than anything.

Interesting. I had a 7+ before the X and I miss the size of the 7+. No way I'm giving up FaceId and the new gestures though.

I had a 7 so it was a much bigger jump for me.

I'm curious, do you wear baggy pants or not keep your phone in your pocket? I use android phones, but anything much over a 5" screen is too large for me to get in or out of my pocket while sitting down.

Also I know my hands are on the small side, but various phones/phablets the size of the 7+ are uncomfortable for me to hold, and obviously impossible for me to use with one hand.

Not baggy, but since I lift weights and am built somewhat athletic I have to wear larger jeans.

I could read with one hand on the 7+ and do most operations using the shortcut to bring half the screen down.

Though it's not wide, the effective screen size of the X is very tall and you have to reach down quite low to do the gestures, compared to home button taps. I found it quite unergonomic. I returned mine for an 8.

(Writing this made me realize I always taps the very uppermost area of the home button)

If they had a fingerprint reader on the back of the device it would be even better.

My question to you is: have you used Face ID? What makes you prefer a fingerprint reader on the back to it?

I can unlock the phone as I take it out of my pocket. It's unlocked before I even look at it. I have not used Face ID.

I have a phone with the reader on the back. Seemed like a good idea til I realized I couldn't unlock it anymore while pinching it out of my pocket much less when it's flat against a table.

In fact it feels like a hilarious oversight.

> I couldn't unlock it anymore while pinching it out of my pocket

I don't have that problem. Maybe if I wore skinny jeans. Unlock from pocket is the way I usually do it.

This may be my ignorance, having an iPhone 7, but doesn't Face ID "unlock" to what everyone previously called the Lock Screen? So not only do you need to point your phone at your face (which, I'm more conscious than ever, I rarely do) but you still have to perform some gesture to get to your home screen where with Touch ID it's one gesture to do both.

If you wake up a 7 and swipe on a notification you will get the touchid dialog. On an X it will bring you directly to the app because the phone is already unlocked.

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