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Comment by dbbk | Hacker News Reader

The notch is smaller because it's just a camera lens. The iPhone X basically has a Kinect in its notch. They're not really directly comparable.

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Of course you can compare them! They're both phones with a notch! You can also separately compare their face detection capability. But that doesn't disallow you from saying one notch is smaller than the other.

I think he meant given that the features are not the same, it's hard to compare the physical aspects (and more technically, product specifications) "fairly".

I really don't think anyone was trying to disallow people from saying that one notch is smaller than the other.

Much like comparing an oven to a microwave.

Except if you don't want/use face-unlock, then you're left with a huge useless notch... Other than maybe providing better snapchat filter, all those sensors don't do much. I much prefer just having a fingerprint sensor that's smaller and doesn't cover my screen.

Until someone gets into your phone using your finger while you are sleeping. Or muggers steal your phone AND cut off your finger with a cigar cutter so they can unlock it.

Having a PIN is much more secure, as bandits can't use your appendages to get into your phone. I really don't get why people jumped on the bio-metrics bandwagon so quickly. If my Password or PIN gets compromised I can change it. if your fingerprint, or iris gets cloned there's nothing you can do.

Bio-metric security looks cool in movies, but in real life it's an utterly pointless less-secure gimmick.

This kind of shit isn't even close to the threat model that 99% of users care about. If you're the kind of person who needs to worry about Mossad breaking into your phone, you know who you are and you're not using fingerprint unlock.

I have a fine collection of tin foil hats, would you like one?

Seriously though.. Fast Forward 20 years and the Social Media platform that everyone uses has just 'accidentally' leaked 1bn users bio-metric data to a 3rd party. Good luck re-securing your identity after that.

My point is still valid, you can't change your eyeballs, fingers or face if your bio-metrics get leaked.

I think you can add a few .9999s to that.

> Until someone gets into your phone using your finger while you are sleeping. Or muggers steal your phone AND cut off your finger with a cigar cutter so they can unlock it.

If someone malicious has access to me while I'm sleeping I have far greater problems than whatever's on my phone. Same goes for muggers: if I feel threatened I'll happily give my pin away because my integrity is far more important to me than whatever data is on my or my company's device.

If my face fingerprint get cloned the baddies will still need physical access to my phone, which takes us back to my first point: the data in my phone is worth nothing compared to the worth of my physical integrity so it's irrelevant.

I'm comparing face unlock to touch unlock, and you're talking about something entirely different. This is off-topic and an entirely different discussion.

Just out of curiosity, is there a specific reason you don't want to use face unlock?

It's not that I don't want it, it's that I prefer touch unlock. It's faster, more reliable, and I can do it before even taking the phone out of my pocket and at any angle or light condition. In this case, face unlock actually has a downside which is a bigger notch and probably increase in cost, while actually providing a lesser reliable and slower experience. It's basically worse than touch id in every possible way.

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