S21 face recognition is worse than a budget phone

[AnglaisRouge]

Two weeks ago I bought myself a Galaxy S21. This is the first time I have ever owned a "flagship" phone so I had high hopes. I expected everything to be an improvement on my last phone which was a Moto G6 which cost me £199 three years ago. 

The face recognition on the Moto G6 was flawless. Very fast and worked 99 per cent of the time. Sometimes I'd be sitting with it face down on the table and I'd just partially lift it to see the time and ii unlocked. It was that good.

Now here I am with the most expensive phone I've ever bought and the face unlock, to put it bluntly, is *****. It fails probably 4 out of 5 times. From what I've read in this forum I'm not the only one frustraiby this. I've tried all the suggestions and nothing works. Does anyone from Samsung read this forum? Does anyone know if a fix is in the works? How hard can it be to at least match the performance a budget Motorola.

[Anonymous User]

Have you also added alternative image to improve facial unlock ?
Screen brightness helps as well 👍

[Anonymous User]

Face recognition works perfectly on my s21 🤷

[Rūmøur]

Give it sometime. It would soon start working flawlessly.

[AndrewL]

@AnglaisRouge: I'm sorry to hear that Face Recognition isn't responding as expected. To address this, head to Settings > Biometrics and Security > Face Recognition > Enter your security credentials > Remove Face Data, then scan your face once again. Please ensure that you are in a well lit area when proceeding with the face scan, and that the camera lens is clean. Please also be aware that glasses, hats, masks, makeup, hair and beards can affect the recognition process. For added reliability, add an alternative look, make sure Face Unlock is toggled on, and enable Faster Recognition to improve the recognition speed. I hope this helps. 

[AnglaisRouge]

I was already fully aware of all the requirements for setting up face recognition that have been suggested. I have since removed and re-registered my face three more times and it still fails more than 75 per cent of the time, even in good light. Very disappointing for a flagship phone.

[TessM]

In this case @AnglaisRouge , I would recommend sending our developers an Error Report attaching the phone logs and some examples. Remember to do this within 15 minutes of the issue occurring so the phone can capture the right logs.

Once the issue has been reproduced head into the Samsung Members app> Get help> Error report> Select a category and add the examples using the add option (clip icon at the top). 

[AnglaisRouge]

You say your face recognition always works. Do you have to hold your phone perfectly upright directly in front of your face at s close distance? I find this is the only way I can get it to work. Needs to be very precise. My old Moto worked at all distances and angles.

[Anonymous User]

You can add extra image to improve it. I've added a screenshot shot of my settings for you to review.

[AnglaisRouge]

They're exactly the same as my settings. And I have added a second facial image.