Google has decided to bring back face unlock to the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. It does function a bit differently, though, as Google did not opt to include any crazy hardware for that purpose. In addition to face scanning, these phones also have an in-display fingerprint scanner.
The Pixel 7 & Pixel 7 Pro offer both face unlock & fingerprint scanner
As a reminder, the last Pixel phones that offered facial scanning were the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Google is not using a radar camera system (Soli) this time around. Google is only using the front-facing camera, in terms of hardware.
The company does say that this solution is still more secure, though. Why? Well, because of Google’s “advanced machine learning models”, powered by the Google Tensor G2 SoC. That chip fuels both phones, by the way.
One thing to note is that face unlock can only be used for phone unlocking, not for payments. We’re not sure why that is, if it’s as secure as Google claims it is.
Unfortunately, Google did not explain how is this solution more secure than Samsung’s, for example. We do know that Google’s forte is machine learning, but we don’t know how exactly does the Pixel 7 series benefit from it.
Google may be using dual-pixel auto-focus in addition to machine learning for face unlock
XDA Developers have a theory, though. Google could be using dual-pixel auto-focus as a tool to create a depth map of the user’s face. Put some machine learning on top of it, and there you go. Let’s hope Google will offer more details moving forward.
The good news is that you don’t need any extra hardware for this to work. Let’s just hope it’s as secure as Google claims it is. You can always opt for a fingerprint scanner if you prefer that, though.
Google allegedly used a brand new fingerprint scanner inside these two phones, so they should be a lot faster and more accurate than the ones in the Pixel 6 series. We’ll have to test that out, though, of course.
2022-10-07 15:16:15