The Google Pixel 6.
Google has made a lot of noise about packing its new Pixel 6 with features that you won’t find on rival devices. But there is one glaring omission: 3D facial recognition.
Despite leaked images that heavily indicated that the Pixel 6 will have 3D face unlock, it wasn’t included in the final device. It appears that the Google flagship doesn’t house the necessary radar technology to make 3D face unlock possible, which would include a dot projector, flood illuminator and IR cameras alongside the selfie camera.
We may have to wait for a teardown to see if Google has stealthily added that hardware to the Pixel 6, but the lack of a notch that would house all of those sensors is a clear giveaway. It’s a disappointing omission because face unlock was one of the major upsides of the Pixel 4 when it launched, particularly because so few other Android devices had a similar feature.
In 2021 facial biometric security remains largely unused technology in the Android world. It also happened to be one of the few perfectly executed features of the Pixel 4, which had fundamental problems as a handset. There are some technological hurdles that have to be cleared to make face unlock work - Google spent millions on developing its own version. Some display design principles need to be compromised too.
But the pay off is clearly worth it. The speed, ease and lack of interaction needed to unlock the phone, pay for things or verify user identity for necessary apps, isn’t quite the same with a fingerprint reader.
When the Pixel 4's face unlock is combined with Google’s in-house Soli technology - which preps the biometric sensors for use when it recognises a hand reaching for the phone - the experience is that of an elite smartphone. Breezing through London Underground with a glance, instead of fumbling to get a successful read with the under-screen fingerprint scanner, is simply better. Logging into password vaults, banking apps and anything that requires payment - without having to do anything other than look at your phone - is the superior option.
Regardless of how well implemented, a fingerprint scanner - particularly one under the screen - can often be much slower. Reviewers have pointed out that the fingerprint reader of the Pixel 6 can be slow and sometimes misreads attempts, which I'd say is fairly common for most in-screen fingerprint readers on smartphones.
In the time it takes to press your finger to the display - and hopefully find the right spot - the authentication is already completed with face unlock. Those seconds you save aren’t necessarily important, but the speed and accuracy of face unlock really adds to the idea of a premium experience. You feel like you have something genuinely futuristic and therefore you have spent your money well. Repeated unsuccessful fingerprint reads doesn’t.
I understand why Google would leave it out. You need a significant notch to house all of those sensors, and it likely would mean a more expensive Pixel when Google clearly planned to price its flagship competitively. I suspect the huge increase in mask usage also informed Google's decision, especially since Apple has struggled with finding a solution for masks interfering with Face ID.
Google said last year that removing face unlock in the Pixel 5 was about balancing premium features in the device. “We really felt that it was a good trade-off for users to go with the rear fingerprint sensors so that we could enable some of these other premium features that users are looking for in a device," a Google product manager told the PA news agency (via TechRadar). This sounds like a roundabout way of saying costs had to be cut and that means some features had to be axed. Considering the Pixel 5 is a decidedly less technically impressive device than the Pixel 6, that’s not surprising.
But if Google wants to cement its place at the top of the Android world with fast Android updates, unique AI-powered features and longer OS support, then it also needs to bring back one of the most premium features it has ever designed.
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