Michael Tsai: iPhone 5s First Impressions 

Regarding Touch ID:

Touch ID is nice, but it needs improvement. On the plus side, it has never accepted a finger that I didn’t train it with. However, it often fails to accept the two thumbs that I did train. My guess is that it only works 75% of the time on the first try. When trying to test it, it worked 20 times in a row several times. But in everyday use, it often fails three times in a row. If my thumb is sweaty or lotioned, it often doesn’t work at all and I have to type my (now longer) passcode. It doesn’t seem to mind a bit of dampness from hand washing, however.

With the 4S, I only had to enter the passcode a few times per day—based on idle time, I suppose. With the 5s, I have to use Touch ID (or type the passcode) every time. When it works, Touch ID feels slower than swiping to unlock. I’m pretty sure it’s not actually slower, but that second or so where it’s scanning my thumb feels like a long time because I’m not doing anything. The delay is long enough that I feel like there should be some visual feedback that it’s actually doing scanning.

Completely agree with all of this. In daily use, Touch ID fails for me about 25% of the time, often three or four times in a row. I’ve removed and rescanned my fingerprints several times but it doesn’t appear to make a difference. And Touch ID definitely feels slower to me compared to using a standard passcode. Something about the tap-then-hold-then-wait-for-animation-to-finally-finish feels very passive and clunky, whereas entering a passcode feels like it works as quickly as I can do it. It’s all in my head, sure, but it adds up.

Because I’m usually home all day every day, in the past I rarely had passcode turned on, and when I did it was set to a 2- or 5-minute delay, which meant infrequently passcode entry. With Touch ID, every single interaction with the phone requires the aforementioned touch, hold, wait pattern. Feels very slow.

On top of all of this, I’ve only been able to use my fingerprint to purchase from the App Store once—every other time required I first enter my password to “renew Touch ID purchases”, whatever that means.