iPhone 13 is great — but it suffers from one major flaw

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

The reviews are in, and all four iPhone 13 models have set the standard for smartphones in one case again. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is pretty close to perfect with improved cameras, impressive bombardment life and a stellar display with a dynamically adjusting refresh rate. The iPhone 13 Pro is substantially the same, only $100 cheaper. And the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini have their strengths, as well — they're certainly more than afterthoughts to the iPhone 13 Pro options.

And every bit proficient as these phones are, they're yet damn hard to unlock.

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I'g not talking about when you're in the comfort of your own office — offices... now there's a name I haven't heard in a while — or fifty-fifty outside in the open air. In those situations, the iPhone 13 models unlock via Face ID, same as every Apple tree phone since the iPhone X. But when you lot're out and almost and effectually other people wearing a mask, as you should be in this era of COVID-nineteen Delta variants, unlocking an iPhone 13 is as complicated every bit always.

Face ID is every bit secure as information technology is because it reads your *whole* face, not just the surface area effectually your eyes or a flattened area of your kisser. That'southward why fooling Face ID is hard, and why y'all tin use it to verify mobile payments in addition to unlocking your phone. Simply slap on a face mask, and the iPhone's TrueDepth camera tin can't see your rima oris or the curves of your mentum. And that'due south when you take to meticulously tap in a passcode, as if you were living in an earlier uncivilized era.

Information technology didn't necessarily have to be this fashion. Apple had some options at its disposal to simplify iPhone unlocking with the iPhone thirteen and either couldn't implement them or chose not to.

iphone 13 face id — The notch hiding the FaceID sensors is smaller on the iPhone 13 models, but functionality is the same. (Epitome credit: Tom'south Guide)

The most obvious change would be to add some sort of in-display fingerprint sensor, not unlike the ultrasonic sensor institute in the Galaxy S21 lineup. In-display sensors have become so ubiquitous on the Android side, you'll observe them included in midrange devices these days — certainly phones that don't command the iPhone's price tag.

The trouble with in-brandish sensors is that they can be hit or miss — mostly miss, based on some of the phones I've reviewed. It tin can take some attempt for these sensors to read your finger properly; on some phones information technology takes me a couple of tries to successfully unlock with an in-display sensor. For Apple — which prizes the feel of its users above a lot of other factors — that would be a non-starter, and understandably so. Apple'southward not going to use such a sensor unless information technology works all the fourth dimension, without fail.

But there's more than than i mode to read a fingerprint, which Apple surely knowns since it uses this method on some iPads. You lot can also embed a fingerprint sensor in a device'south power or Dwelling button. Samsung does this with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Apple does, also with both the iPad 9 and iPad Air 4. Why information technology choose to skip that approach with the iPhone 13 is something for Apple tree to explicate.

Tin Face ID get a fix?

It's not equally if Apple tree has been sitting around twiddling its thumbs while mask-wearing iPhone users take waited for relief. iOS xiv.5 introduced a workaround that lets yous unlock your phone if you've got an Apple Watch on, using proximity sensors. But this only goes and then far. Not just can't you verify payments with this method, it very plain requires you to be wearing an Apple Watch. For some of usa, that's merely not going to happen. And any answer to "How do I unlock my new $699 or more telephone?" that begins "Well, beginning buy a $199 spotter" is not a very expert respond at all.

iPhone iOS 14.5 watchOS 7.4 Unlock with Apple Watch — (Prototype credit: Shutterstock)

I'm holding out hope that there is a fix to the iPhone's face mask woes, and that it will be implemented with a software set up downwards the line. Prior to the iPhone xiii'southward launch, a rumor emerged that Apple was testing out Face ID hardware that would allow the unlocking feature to work even on people wearing face masks. If that feature wasn't ready when the iPhone xiii debuted, the rumor went on, information technology could e'er be enabled later, in one case Apple tree fine-tuned the software. There were even leaked images of dummy prototypes Apple employees were supposedly using to test things out.

At present, this could be another i of those swing-and-a-miss rumors that pop up before a phone launches, and there could exist no such update in the works. But it'due south non completely implausible, and it certainly beats resigning yourself to piddling with a passcode betwixt now and the iPhone 14 launch.

Like it or non, masks are going to stick around for a while — fifty-fifty if COVID is brought to heel, there'due south still the small matter of climate alter-triggered wildfires that will require us to don protective facegear every so often. As expert equally the iPhone 13 models are, they'd be even better if Apple tree could figure out a way to reverberate our new reality.

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Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.