OnePlus needs to fix these fingerprint and face unlock issues

AljwadhJanuary 19, 2025

0 1,589 3 minutes read

Fingerprint and face unlock are an expected and essential part of our modern devices, but after spending some time with the OnePlus 13, I remembered a few annoying quirks that OnePlus still needs to address.

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OnePlus has long been good when it comes to fingerprint sensors. They’ve been fast and accurate over the last few generations of OnePlus devices, but almost all of those devices have had two quirks left.

Let’s start from the very beginning when you first unbox your OnePlus device.

There’s one annoying setup step that annoys me every time I use a OnePlus device, and that’s when I set up the fingerprint. During setup, you’ll be prompted to set up biometrics, including a fingerprint, but that’s where it stops. After installing a fingerprint, you will have to proceed to the next stage of the process. The only way to add a fingerprint is after the device is fully set up. Theoretically, this is not one huge deal, but every now and then it results in the same poor user experience – the user goes through the rest of the setup process, only to start using their device and find out hours or maybe days later, oops, the other fingerprint won’t work.

It will take virtually no effort to fix this simply by adding an “add another” command to the installation process.

It also won’t reinvent the wheel, as OnePlus’ biggest competitors (outside of China) already do. Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy devices will prompt users to add a second fingerprint after the first one is enrolled. This is optional, so they can still skip and finish the setup if they want, but this instruction makes it easy to complete both registrations at once and, frankly, saves a headache or two.

OnePlus is not the only brand doing this as I have noticed the same from other brands from China. But OnePlus in particular has had to update this behavior to match the other global brands it is trying to compete with.

It’s a point I’ve talked about in the past that’s getting more and more annoying by the day, and this is how face and fingerprint unlocking works on the OnePlus 13 and other devices.

While secure face unlock isn’t a good thing for security, it’s a quick and easy way to use your device, so I can see why people want to use it. However, I find it maddeningly annoying because the two systems – face and fingerprint – have to stick to each other’s toes. If you have both systems enabled, face unlock can disable the fingerprint sensor before you have a chance to use it, forcing you to change your intended behavior for using that scanner and unlock the device with a swipe instead. As I mentioned a few months ago, Google seems to be the only brand that gets it rightbecause the fingerprint sensor area will first become the button that unlocks the device when face unlock is enabled.

This is especially important, I feel, because face unlock on the OnePlus 13 is not secure. So using it as an unlock method means I have to “unlock” the device again later to use secure apps like Google Wallet. By allowing users to continue with the fingerprint sensor even when face unlock is enabled, it remembers that step later and results in a better overall experience.

What do you think? Have complaints about how the fingerprint sensor and/or face unlock works on your device?

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