On new budget iPhone 16e, there’s a big change in Apple’s biometric security
Apple’s latest budget iPhone model, the iPhone 16e, which started shipping on Feb. 28, 2025.
Apple
With the release of its new iPhone 16e, which started shipping on Friday, Apple is taking a break from fingerprint technology as a biometric security feature in its smartphone line-up. But the separation may only be temporary.
In a move that underscores the tech giant’s ongoing commitment to facial authentication technology, Apple’s new phone for more budget-conscious consumers will offer Face ID instead of fingerprint scanning technology, dubbed Touch ID.
“It’s the most effortless way of authenticating,” said Joe Palmer, chief innovation officer at iProov, a global technology company focused on biometric verification and authentication. If you think about how many times you unlock a phone in a day, even if it takes you a second and you’re unlocking the phone 100 times a day, it adds up, he said. “I don’t think we’re going to see an evolution beyond face anytime soon,” he added.
Still, technology and cybersecurity professionals say fingerprint scanning technology has plenty of life left — and Apple itself is likely to offer the option in future device releases, including smartphones.
Here’s what consumers need to understand about the latest biometric trends in smartphones, and what’s likely to come next:
Why fingerprints could still make a comeback
Apple’s Touch ID continues to be available in certain iPad models, and the company is likely to reintroduce the technology in subsequent versions of its smartphones, according to experts consulted by CNBC. One sign they point to that makes this likely: The company was granted a patent several years ago for under-display fingerprint reading technology and continues to work on improvements, according to several published reports. As a result, the company is likely to bring back Touch ID to smartphones once it perfects its version of under-the-screen technology.
Apple declined to comment.
Consumers like choices, Palmer said, offering the example of a colleague who uses facial authentication to unlock an Android phone and fingerprint technology to authorize payments. Once Apple introduces fingerprint technology under the screen, it will likely be available in flagship phones again and work its way down through the models, he said.
Why Apple is focusing on facial authentication for now
Apple’s near-term move away from fingerprint technology in its smartphones makes sense for several reasons. For one, the company has always had a larger facial recognition culture, in part because its technology is solid and easy to use, said Roger Grimes, an analyst at KnowBe4, a security platform provider.
It’s designed to automatically adapt to changes in user appearance, such as wearing cosmetic makeup or growing facial hair. It’s also designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses and many sunglasses. The company designed the technology to work indoors, outdoors, and even in total darkness. With iPhone 12 or later, Face ID also works with face masks.
The move away from Touch ID on smartphones is also an attempt to appeal to customers who want more screen space on their devices, technology professionals said. In past phone versions, Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor was integrated into a phone’s home or power button. Whereas the iPhone 16e — similar to the iPhone 10 — has a notch, a physical area on its display for sensors. This design element has been used in smartphones for several years to accommodate front-facing cameras and microphones while meeting consumer demand for larger edge-to-edge screens. “Apple has been slowly trying to remove the home button from phones for many years to get the edge-to-edge experience where the entire phone is a screen and there’s no wasted space,” Palmer said.
Thumb tech is cost-effective
Fingerprint technology continues to be available on Android devices, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon, even as newer phones offer facial authentication as an option, said Jean Fang, senior consultant for biometrics and authentication at Fime, which offers consulting and testing services to the payments industry.
Face Unlock is available on Pixel 4 and Pixel 7 or later Pixel phones, including Pixel Fold, according to Google’s website. On Pixel 8 and later, consumers can use Face Unlock to verify their identity when they sign into apps or approve a purchase. The face recognition feature can be used on Galaxy phones or tablets to unlock the device and verify the user’s identity in certain apps, according to Samsung’s website.
Even as more devices adopt facial authentication, fingerprint technology will remain a solid option for many phone users, technology professionals said. For one thing, fingerprint scanning is more cost-effective than other options such as iris or palm scans. “It’s a very good technology and it’s very mature and we have fingerprint sensors that are affordable everywhere,” said D. J. Lee, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Brigham Young University.
“It works the way we need it to work most of the time,” said Grimes.
Biometric security limitations
To be sure, there are downsides to popular biometric options. Fingerprint authentication doesn’t always work properly, if, for example, a person’s finger is wet or chapped, or the sensor can’t detect an exact match for another reason. But facial authentication technology also has drawbacks, especially as deepfake technology advances, said Fang, who is also a member of the Secure Technology Alliance, a not-for-profit, multi-industry association focused on identity, access and payments. There can also be limitations on how well facial authentication works depending on factors such as lighting and whether the person had facial surgery such as a nose job or eyebrow lift, she said.
“It can be a good feature for some lower-risk cases, but not all cases,” Fang said.
Despite the limitations of existing biometric modules, fingerprint and face authentication technology are expected to be the go-to biometric methods for the foreseeable future. That’s not for lack of testing of other methods, but for more practical reasons. About 15 years ago, Grimes participated in a product test that tried to identify users by smell, which seemed to work well until the test subjects ate a lot of garlic or drank alcohol. “It turned out a lot of people really liked garlic and that would overwhelm their scent and you have a lot of people that drink a lot,” he said.
While it’s possible to authenticate users through other biometric methods, like iris or palm scans — Amazon Whole Foods’ stores palm payments tech being a recent example — in many cases these may cost more and add more friction for users, making widespread adoption less likely. “It’s the balance between security, the convenience and the cost,” Lee said.
U.S. President Donald Trump (right) and C.C. Wei, chief executive officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (left), shake hands during an announcement of an additional $100 billion into TSMC’s U.S. manufacturing at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., on March 3, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The latest version of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” could make it cheaper for semiconductor manufacturers to build plants in the U.S. as Washington continues its efforts to strengthen its domestic chip supply chain.
Under the bill, passed by the Senate Tuesday, tax credits for those semiconductor firms would rise to 35% from 25%. That’s more than the 30% increase that had made it into a draft version of the bill.
Companies eligible for the credits could include chipmakers such as Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Micron Technology, provided that they expand their advanced manufacturing in the U.S. ahead of a 2026 deadline.
The new provisions expand on tax incentives under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which provided grants of $39 billion and loans of $75 billion for U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing projects.
But before the expanded credits come into play, Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package will have to be passed again in the House, which narrowly passed its own version last month. The president has urged lawmakers to get the bill passed by July 4.
Trump versus Biden
Since Trump’s first term, Washington has been trying to onshore more of the advanced semiconductor supply chain from Asia, support its domestic players and limit China’s capabilities.
Although tax provisions in Trump’s sweeping policy bill expand on those in the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, his overall approach to the semiconductor industry has been different.
Earlier this year, the president even called for a repeal of the CHIPS Act, though Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to act on that front. Still, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that the administration was renegotiating some of the Biden administration’s grants.
Trump has previously stated that tariffs, as opposed to the CHIPS Act grants, would be the best method of onshoring semiconductor production. The Trump administration is currently conducting an investigation into imports of semiconductor technology, which could result in new duties on the industry.
In recent months, a number of chipmakers with projects in the U.S. have ramped up planned investments there. That includes the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, as well as American chip companies such as Nvidia, Micron and GlobalFoundries.
According to Daniel Newman, CEO at tech advisory firm Futurum Group, the threat of Trump’s tariffs has created more urgency for semiconductor companies to expand U.S. capacity. If the increased investment tax credits come into law, those onshoring efforts are only expected to accelerate, he told CNBC.
“Given the risk of tariffs, increasing manufacturing in the U.S. remains a key consideration for these large semiconductor companies,” Newman said, adding that the tax credits could be seen as an opportunity to offset certain costs related to U.S.-based projects.
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tesla shares have dropped 7% from Friday’s closing price of $323.63 to the $300.71 close on Tuesday ahead of the company’s second-quarter deliveries report.
Wall Street analysts are expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 387,000 — a 13% decline compared to deliveries of nearly 444,000 a year ago, according to a consensus compiled by FactSet. Prediction market Kalshi told CNBC on Tuesday that its traders forecast deliveries of around 364,000.
Shares in the electric vehicle maker had been rising after Tesla started a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in late June and CEO Elon Musk boasted of its first “driverless delivery” of a car to a customer there.
The stock price took a turn after Musk on Saturday reignited a feud with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the massive spending bill that the commander-in-chief endorsed. The bill is now heading for a final vote in the House.
That legislation would benefit higher-income households in the U.S. while slashing spending on programs such as Medicaid and food assistance.
Musk did not object to cuts to those specific programs. However, Musk on X said the bill would worsen the U.S. deficit and raise the debt ceiling. The bill includes tax cuts that would add around $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Tesla CEO has also criticized aspects of the bill that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars in support for renewable energy development in the U.S. and phase out tax credits for electric vehicles.
Such changes could hurt Tesla as they are expected to lower EV sales by roughly 100,000 vehicles per year by 2035, according to think tank Energy Innovation.
The bill is also expected to reduce renewable energy development by more than 350 cumulative gigawatts in that same time period, according to Energy Innovation. That could pressure Tesla’s Energy division, which sells solar and battery energy storage systems to utilities and other clean energy project developers.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Musk was, “upset that he’s losing his EV mandate,” but that the tech CEO could “lose a lot more than that.” Trump was alluding to the subsidies, incentives and contracts that Musk’s many businesses have relied on.
SpaceX has received over $22 billion from work with the federal government since 2008, according to FedScout, which does federal spending and government contract research. That includes contracts from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, among others.
Tesla has reported $11.8 billion in sales of “automotive regulatory credits,” or environmental credits, since 2015, according to an evaluation of the EV maker’s financial filings by Geoff Orazem, CEO of FedScout.
These incentives are largely derived from federal and state regulations in the U.S. that require automakers to sell some number of low-emission vehicles or buy credits from companies like Tesla, which often have an excess.
Regulatory credit sales go straight to Tesla’s bottom line. Credit revenue amounted to approximately 60% of Tesla’s net income in the second quarter of 2024.
WATCH: Threats to SpaceX & Tesla as Musk, Trump feud heats up
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