OnePlus bring their face unlock implementation to the OnePlus 5

One of the best features of the OnePlus 5T is the face unlock implementation which unlocks the phone in 0.4 seconds. After listening to their fans OnePlus decided to bring this functionality to the OnePlus 5 and now it has arrived in beta format.

Through their beta program OnePlus have brought face unlock functionality to the OnePlus 5. Previously the beta was at Oreo beta 2 before a stable Oreo was released. Now beta 3 brings with it this face unlock but there is a catch — you cannot update to it directly from the stable Oreo without wiping all data on the phone.

Using the Ausdroid OnePlus 5 unit I was able to previously on the stable Oreo build released just before Christmas but when I flashed the new Oreo Beta 3 on top of it I ended up in an endless bootloop even after a cache wipe and a system wipe before flashing the beta. Only a full data wipe was able to make it boot again.

Thus if you really must have face unlock on your OnePlus 5 make sure you back up everything first before following the instructions on OnePlus’ website to install the third Oreo open beta.

Face unlock is near instantaneous on the OnePlus 5 and works amazingly well. Set the phone to double tap to wake and face unlock and unlocks before you have a chance to blink. The question remains though when you will actually use it considering the fingerprint sensor is also located on the front and it one of the fastest and most accurate around.

Along with face unlock OnePlus have added the December security patch, vibration optimisations and various bug fixes to the new beta released yesterday.

If you want to try it out head on over to the OnePlus website, download the beta and follow the instructions to install the beta. For those who don’t want to lose all their data on their phone there is little doubt in my mind that this will arrive in the stable channel before too long.