I have established that Face ID (at least for me) has problems with bright sunlight and strong shadows. We’ve got some great weather at the moment with days of cloudless skies and I’m outdoors a lot. Currently Face ID is failing 9 out of 10 times. If I move into a shaded area it then works.
I definitely prefer the fingerprint scanner.
The scanner is not working with sweaty hands… 
This has been the case for me as well: If I am facing the sun then FaceID doesn’t work. My solution is to turn so that my head is between the phone and the sun, which seems to “fix” the issue reliably for me.
And not with dirty hands from yardwork or DIY jobs around the house either. 
Those have never been an issue for me.
Simply buy an iPhone SE, and you get your Fingerprint Scanner back…!
I need a somewhat larger phone then the se.
I would consider an SE if it keeps TouchID.
You said, that you “really hate” the FaceID, and under this circumstances, I would take the smaller one, so you do not need to “really hate” your iPhone!
In this thread others have hinted that Face ID is adaptive and learns over time. Maybe in the UK we just don’t get enough sunshine for it to have figured out what we look like in bright light 
Ah, but it’s face ID I have a problem with. I quite like my iphone. I would struggle with the smaller screen and smaller battery.
Yes indeed!
FaceID is part of your iPhone, if you do not use an SE.
And you should not hate, what you want to like…!
So why not just go back to the PIN code? May not be as secure but avoids all th issues with faceid and so on.
I can’t believe how much activity this post I made in 2019 is getting! One thing that has made Face ID a lot better is the addition of unlocking the phone from my Apple Watch, added during the pandemic because of mask wearing. But it also helps during the random times Face ID fails for all the reasons listed above. So now I don’t hate Face ID anymore.
I did debate that with myself, but currently use an alphanumeric password. A PIN seems to insecure considering it gives access to your whole device.
I have found that FaceID’s success rate varies very little when I wear my AW.
Good idea. It’s proving to be faster for me because it eliminates waiting for face ID to fail.
I had forgotten about this and have just turned it on. Let’s see if it makes things any easier.