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FaceID uses infrared, lighting conditions do not matter.

You can disable the requiring of looking at the phone and unlocking via FaceID in settings, I regularly unlock my phone without holding it so I am "dead on looking at it".

That said, I also prefer TouchID.

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FaceID uses infrared, lighting conditions do not matter.

This is straight up not true. It works fine in the dark, but unlocking an iPhone in direct sunlight can often take a couple of tries.

I've never seen this myself on a XR, but I will take your word for it (As it does make sense), thanks for the info.

I was more thinking lack of light not being a issue, I didn't take into account that mass amounts of light can blow out the image for the sensors.

On the controrary it does not work in complete darkness, dim light is fine. My iPhone 12 never unlocks with Face ID in the middle of the night, and neither did my iPhone XS. I can however see a faint red light flash from the sensor when it tries, I guess this is spill-over into the visible spectrum from the IR.

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