When OnePlus launched the OnePlus 5T late this year, one of the only big differences that helped separate the two was Face Unlock, the OnePlus 5T’s biometric facial recognition feature. Unlike Face ID on the iPhone X, the 5T’s Face Unlock only uses a regular selfie camera, instead of a fancy infrared depth-mapping camera. That makes for a facial scan that’s less secure and unique, but also faster, and crucially, one that’s only based in software.
The lack of dedicated hardware also means that OnePlus can bring Face Unlock to older devices, and that’s exactly what it plans to do, following customer feedback. OnePlus 5 owners, time to be happy, because OnePlus just gave you a very timely Christmas present.
OnePlus 5 founder Carl Pei tweeted on Sunday that Face Unlock will be coming to the OnePlus 5, thanks to feedback from OnePlus’s customers:
Due to popular demand, Face Unlock is coming for the OnePlus 5. Thanks for the feedback, and merry Christmas! 🎅🎄🎁
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) December 24, 2017
There’s no timeline or plan announced yet for when it will roll out, so don’t go mashing that update just yet. OnePlus will likely need to test its code with the (slightly) different hardware on the OnePlus 5 to find any differences or tweaks that need to be made, so we’re likely looking at a few weeks or perhaps months before it rolls out.
OnePlus is known for being relatively attentive to its customers, and this appears to be a good example. A lot of phone companies would decide that they’re restricting the newest features to the newest phone, and that’s that. But OnePlus knows it’s never a good idea to abandon support for a phone that’s not even a year old, so it’s doing the right thing, and keeping the slightly older model up to date with the latest features.
Apart from Face Unlock, the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T are very similar devices, featuring the all the same internals. The big difference is the all-screen display on the OnePlus 5T, which ditches the home button and stretches a little taller to fit a 6-inch display in place. The 5T also has a slightly updated dual-camera setup on the back, although the selfie cameras appear to be the same.
