iPhone 6s TouchID fingerprint sensor is too good, users complain

Many people say that they use the home button to wake up the phone — but the new TouchID is so quick that users get moved straight into their phone

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 30 September 2015 10:46 EDT
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The fingerprint sensor on the new iPhone 6s is so fast that many people are getting mad at it.

The TouchID sensor, built into the home button, reads users’ fingerprint to allow them quickly into their phone — and has had huge improvements in the new phones. It has been so improved that it is unlocking people’s phones before they get to see the home screen, some people have complained.

Many people say that they use the home button to have a quick look at the phone’s lock screen, so that they can tell the time or look at their notifications. The iPhone 6s’s fingerprint sensor is so quick that it is almost impossible to see that screen for any length of time, if the phone is woken up using the thumb.

There are a number of ways around the super-quick sensor.

Perhaps the most obvious is just using the sleep/wake button on the side of the phone to wake it up, rather than the home button — on the iPhone 6s, that is easily reachable with a finger. Otherwise, you can just wake the phone up with a different finger or a different part of your thumb, if you just want to see the home screen.

Some have even pointed out that since the two things that people use their lock screen are notifications and the time — and those are the primary uses for the Apple Watch — the fast home button might even lead to some people getting that instead.

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