One of the major deciding factors when I buy a computer is if the computer supports Windows Hello face sign-in. Nothing beats the instantaneous login support that Hello offers, especially when having to get to work immediately. Fingerprint readers are cool, but I find them unreliable, especially with my extremely sweaty hands messing up the fingerprint image. I’ve consistently had this issue with any fingerprint reader I’ve used in a computer, keyboard, or phone, across many market segments and price ranges, so I doubt that reader quality is a factor. I see that there are two windows on the top bezel. Is one of them an IR emitter for Windows Hello? If not, is there an option to upgrade to a Hello camera?
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+1
(Now have to pad this to 20 characters!)
I’m pretty sure this was covered already
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Fingerprint readers have been notoriously flaky in the past, but we’ve picked a latest-generation sensor that we’ve found to be fairly reliable.
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I’m not technically minded so I am not sure of the correct terminology. When my wife turns on her Huawei Matebook with its power button/fingerprint reader, it ‘remembers’ it so that she does not have to use the fingerprint reader again to log in to Windows. Will the Framework do the same?
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Do you mean that your computer doesn’t ask you to log in again if you simply close the lid? (If this is so, I would suggest you change that, as it can be a security risk to leave your computer unlocked.) Because you can set Windows to only ask you to log in when you log in for the first time and not require it when you wake up from sleep. But that’s a Windows feature, not related in any way to the hardware of the computer. (You can adjust this setting in Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options → Require sign-in.)
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I believe what njf is referencing is a feature also present on some Asus laptops, where when you press the power button it caches the fingerprint it scanned, so that once Windows boots a few seconds later it doesn’t require you to touch the power button/fingerprint scanner again.
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OH. Yeah, that is a clever feature. It would be great if the Framework laptop did that. Sorry about that. Was confused about how it was described.
Yes, Nich describes it much better than I. My current laptop, which can’t do that, is tucked away a bit as it is connected to an external monitor and keyboard and having that caching function would avoid my having to type my password or PIN after Windows has finished booting.
Hopefully, cameras for laptops become better over time and it can be implemented into the laptop.
Windows Hello is incredibly convenient. Simply opening a laptop and having it unlocked feels better than using a fingerprint.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but windows hello on the webcam of my XPS 15 is… janky. It doesn’t know me if I got a hair clip on, nor does it recognize if I simply have my glasses off. A lot of the other facial recognition I’ve used, for instance FaceID is more reliable than that. So I don’t know if it’s just my setup or windows hello itself.
Interesting,
the 5 year old MSFT Surface tablet that I abandoned due to dead battery
was able to recognize my ugly face quite reliably after I added additional trainings to it with glasses, hat, low light etc.