I’ve been using my iPad Pro for years now – of course that means I like it, but there are two features that really ruin the experience for me.
First is the battery life, but I know I can’t help but be so annoyed about it. I’ve been using this thing non-stop for several years and Apple isn’t great with their product battery life anyway – I’ve gotten used to that by now.
But there’s one feature that some Apple fans are calling positive that I just hate for the iPad: Face ID.
Face ID sucks on iPads
I know Face ID is popular on iPhones, but I’ve found that it doesn’t work well at all. It rarely recognizes my face, and even when it does, it takes a lot of rotating and fiddling with the device to get it lined up properly. Oh, and just picking up the phone is a chore if I can avoid the in-screen fingerprint sensors.
I’m admittedly comparing it to Android phone equivalents, which are a little less secure, but I’m not a secret agent or a major celebrity – the odds of someone printing out a 3D copy of my face to hack into my phone are pretty rare.
I’ve also found that Face ID doesn’t take changes in my face into account – sometimes I have a lot of facial hair and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I wear glasses and sometimes I don’t. I’ve even found that my hairstyle affects them and don’t get me started on face masks.
But if it’s annoying on iPhones, it’s downright bad on iPads.
That’s because the sensors in iPhones need to be angled at just the right angle for Face ID to work. It’s not too difficult if you lift the device to your face to unlock it. But you won’t want to do exactly the same thing on an iPad.
I consistently find myself craning my neck over my 12.9-inch iPad Pro to try to unlock it, or picking it up and twirling it in my hands. That’s not exactly easy considering how big it is.
Apple’s Face ID might be great for small portable devices, but tablets are designed for use on a desktop or work counter – since Face ID requires you to be perfectly positioned in front of the sensors, the Face Unlock system just isn’t ideal.
Long live Touch ID
I think Apple knows Face ID is bad on iPad models because it’s started to avoid it on other tablets.
The iPad Air 4 and Air 5, and the Mini 6 all use Touch ID, which is embedded in the power buttons on the tablet’s edge. A solution like this makes unlocking the slate so much easier – you can just reach out and press the power button to boot it up.
Keep in mind that you’ll have to touch the iPad Pro’s power button anyway to tell it you want to unlock it via Face ID, so using the button is just one step away.
I wish I had this feature on my iPad Pro. It would keep me from doing circus tricks to get the board to notice me and I could start my video editing or movie stream without too much hassle.
Coming to the iPad Pro?
I don’t think Apple will be dropping Face ID anytime soon, even though it has avoided bringing it to its mid-range tablets. That would be an admission that the technology doesn’t work well, and Apple wouldn’t do that without some new innovation to replace it.
But I’d love to see the company bring Touch ID to its next iPad Pro models, which we’re expecting in 2022. It would be a consumer-friendly upgrade that would make the tablets much more user-friendly.
iPad Pros are designed for professionals. These tablets are carried around on desks, on laps on public transport, or in the field – using a very directional facial recognition tool just doesn’t cut it.
Perhaps we could see both Face ID and Touch ID being used as options for the tablet – if it’s an expensive Pro model, Apple could afford to use both. But when it comes down to one or the other, I have my fingers crossed that future Apple devices will see more, not less, use of Touch ID.
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