[Thine Wonk]

Question...

How many members here have chosen to encrypt their device?
Why did you choose to do it?
Do you feel it has slowed your device down?

I have thought about doing it, but have taken the decision that generally I'm very careful, I never leave the phone anywhere and don't want any performance reduction or potential bricking if something goes wrong.

I have the fingerprint scanner enabled for when I'm not in my home location or car (bluetooth safe connection).I also don't think if a petty thief stole the phone they would be in the slightest bit interested in trying to connect the device to a PC and get the data off and then going to the hassle of selling or using data, they are more likely the be relatively low intelligence and will likely factory reset and sell so they can buy more drugs etc.

I'm not yet sold on the need, but I'm interested in what other people think and willing to consider things I haven't thought of that may sway my decision. I suppose if the performance hit is virtually zero and the risk of issues is virtually zero it may as well be done, but that's what I'm still unclear about.

[JasonWatkins]

To be honest, with my previous iPhones I never actually bothered with a pin code or any kind of security features because I reasoned that due to the way i used my phone, it would never be out of my hand, so i'd feel it if someone tried to nick it.

Since I've upgraded to the 128gb 6s and now have Apple Pay available, i've actually taken to activating the Touch ID sensor and having the pin code enabled, as well as using Find my iPhone on top of that.

I still use the phone in the same way and when i'm out, i've constantly got music playing as well so there's little chance that someone could lift it from me without me being immediately aware - but - the extra security features just make me feel a little happier I suppose.

[Aye Up]

I have had pin code enabled on most of my handsets. It wasn't until Apple released the 5S did that change. Then I switched to Note 4 and now S6 Edge, the former worked by sliding your finger down the sensor, where as the latter is just touch, I suppose in the same vein as Apple.

I have to say though, Apple has the best implementation, it just works. It registers your prints via thermal imagine I believe, were are other sensors on other phones I think is electric signature based (I am happy to be corrected, educated guess). Now having seen the 6S with Touch ID 2, it just destroys the competition, I suppose thats how Apple works, take something already and make it better.

Maybe I'm off on a tangent here, I didn't encrypt my iPhone as I felt the pass code and Touch ID was sufficient.

I don't feel that with Android, if I encrypt the phone then I see a massive performance fall out, I would expect that to happen no matter which phone I would have (based on Android). I have the finger print and pin enabled, though I have to admit that isn't completely secure as clever people could overcome that on and Android phone easily.

Fingerprint sensors are a catching trend, I just don't feel like it really warrants my attention. Its there but well a bit meh!

[paulbeattie87]

I've never had any issues with encryption, although I use an iPhone. There might be a bit more of a performance hit on Android depending on the device and how the security is architected e.g. is there a dedicated chip handling encryption and decryption.

As for those above who aren't encrypting their iPhone that's only possible with the iPhone 3G or earlier, after the 3GS when the phone is booted for the first time an encryption key is generated, this happens with or without a PIN code. You can find out more information at https://www.apple.com/business/docs/...rity_Guide.pdf

[Richard_T]

My android device has a pattern lock, The sim card also has a pin code set on it.
Iphones and other devices have also had a separate pin unlock as well

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

How many members here have chosen to encrypt their device?
Why did you choose to do it?
Do you feel it has slowed your device down?

Encryption is default on iPhones since 3GS; and since you can't test it without encryption there isn't a "slow down" feeling. Also encrypted iPhones seem to bench test faster than many unencrypted android devices (see Anandtech reviews) Maybe due to better (more expensive?) NAND storage, or due to better hardware support for encryption.

[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard_T

My android device has a pattern lock, The sim card also has a pin code set on it.
Iphones and other devices have also had a separate pin unlock as well

Bloody hell, I didn't even think they were a thing (still). I suppose in that respect should your phone be stolen and card removed the bastards won't be able to run up a phone bill.

[packages]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

Bloody hell, I didn't even think they were a thing (still). I suppose in that respect should your phone be stolen and card removed the bastards won't be able to run up a phone bill.

Yep, since I saw it on Watchdog (I think), I've set a PIN on my SIM too. Why risk it?

[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by packages

Yep, since I saw it on Watchdog (I think), I've set a PIN on my SIM too. Why risk it?

Point taken! (goes off to find where it is on an S6 )

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

Bloody hell, I didn't even think they were a thing (still). I suppose in that respect should your phone be stolen and card removed the bastards won't be able to run up a phone bill.

Exactly - the SIM may no longer have any data (phone numbers/names) stored on it, but it is still the key to the account.

I doubt anyone I know has a SIM PIN though!

[Thine Wonk]

I don't, but then I have a £15 spend cap on my phone over and above the usual price plan cost. When I have gone over it the phone instantly stops making calls or using anything chargeable further. I'm happy with that. In Europe you've now got the new maximum roaming cost limits now too, £40 a day I think? If I did have the phone stolen, i'd let my network know at the earliest opportunity anyway so they could bar the phone.

So I suppose based on the iPhone information this thread is really now in the hands of the Android users to feed back.

[bikerlad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

I have had pin code enabled on most of my handsets. It wasn't until Apple released the 5S did that change. Then I switched to Note 4 and now S6 Edge, the former worked by sliding your finger down the sensor, where as the latter is just touch, I suppose in the same vein as Apple.

I have to say though, Apple has the best implementation, it just works. It registers your prints via thermal imagine I believe, were are other sensors on other phones I think is electric signature based (I am happy to be corrected, educated guess). Now having seen the 6S with Touch ID 2, it just destroys the competition, I suppose thats how Apple works, take something already and make it better.

Nexus Imprint on the Nexus 6P works very well and is faster than touch ID on the 6S. The placement on the back seemed odd at the start but now feels a lot more natural there than on the front, like my OP2.

My Nexus 6P has software accelerated encryption and I see no need to turn it off. SIM PIN set up as well in case.

[Cloudane]

I have it on my 5X. Far as I know, you can't turn it off if you intend to use Android Pay (when it comes to the UK).

I don't think it's an issue - the only issue that slows down this phone is the crappy Qualcomm SoC that can't run its faster cores for more than a few seconds without thermal throttling, but that goes for almost all 2015 Android smartphones.

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

I have had pin code enabled on most of my handsets. It wasn't until Apple released the 5S did that change. Then I switched to Note 4 and now S6 Edge, the former worked by sliding your finger down the sensor, where as the latter is just touch, I suppose in the same vein as Apple.

I have to say though, Apple has the best implementation, it just works. It registers your prints via thermal imagine I believe, were are other sensors on other phones I think is electric signature based (I am happy to be corrected, educated guess). Now having seen the 6S with Touch ID 2, it just destroys the competition, I suppose thats how Apple works, take something already and make it better.

Maybe I'm off on a tangent here, I didn't encrypt my iPhone as I felt the pass code and Touch ID was sufficient.

I don't feel that with Android, if I encrypt the phone then I see a massive performance fall out, I would expect that to happen no matter which phone I would have (based on Android). I have the finger print and pin enabled, though I have to admit that isn't completely secure as clever people could overcome that on and Android phone easily.

Fingerprint sensors are a catching trend, I just don't feel like it really warrants my attention. Its there but well a bit meh!

Sony Z5 here encrypted and with fingerprint unlocking which is faster than the iPhone 6s and destroys it in comparison tests.

No impact on performance at all. Yes, on older versions of Android and older handsets there was. Now that's not the case whatsoever. I do wish people would stop thinking what happened in older versions happens now.

Also apples fingerprint sensor is not thermal. It's the same as any other sensor. Capacitive.

I suggest you research facts before posting educated guesses. Pretty much all of your post is totally wrong.

[DevonBloke]

My god, how young are you lot???
You're like a bunch of teenagers who know nothing!!!! Hahahahaha
Only joking....
Never heard of a SIM PIN lock?
They have been around since the dawn of 2G. It was a popular way to secure your phone in the mid/late 90s!!
It meant that a phone lock couldn't be got around by using the SIM in a different device.
Mainly therefore protects against unauthorized usage and costs rather than personal details although, yes, we did all used to store our contacts on the SIM.
Ahhhh, those were the days.....NOT!

Thine, I have an iPhone. This will probably come back to bite me now, but I trust the fingerprint reader against all but government organisations and I think even they would struggle.
I have set a six digit underlying pin now though which was a recent iOS addition.
Encryption? Doesn't apple do that anyway? I can't remember. In any case I don't have anything to hide and I'm really not that worried about it. My contacts, email, texts etc, would be a very boring read for most people!
Ultimately, in the near future everyone is going to know everything about anyone so I just think we better get used to it. Quantum computers will change everything so anyone who doesn't like it better jump to a different parallel universe where we are still in the 1900s.

[hammy_y]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikerlad

Nexus Imprint on the Nexus 6P works very well and is faster than touch ID on the 6S. The placement on the back seemed odd at the start but now feels a lot more natural there than on the front, like my OP2.

My Nexus 6P has software accelerated encryption and I see no need to turn it off. SIM PIN set up as well in case.

I prefer the fingerprint reader on the front cause it means I can use it on a table.

[CheshireBumpkin]

Yes, both my Honor 7 and S6 are encrypted (PIN on reboot) and fingerprint locked.

Mainly because I use both of them for client and government comms, and some clients have fairly high confidentiality requirements.

I haven't noticed a slow down on either after encrypting, apart from a few seconds when powering up from 'fully off' or rebooting.

[CheshireBumpkin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CheshireBumpkin

Yes, both my Honor 7 and S6 are encrypted (PIN on reboot) and fingerprint locked.

Mainly because I use both of them for client and government comms, and some clients have fairly high confidentiality requirements.

I haven't noticed a slow down on either after encrypting, apart from a few seconds when powering up from 'fully off' or rebooting.

Oh, and to add to that, I didn't have any problems doing it - I hadn't even realised there was a potential to brick the phone although I do remember the warnings about keeping it plugged in whilst it encrypts.

I think encrypting before doing a factory reset is also one of the ways of being fairly confident of scrubbing personal data before selling or giving your phone away...

[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jchamier

Exactly - the SIM may no longer have any data (phone numbers/names) stored on it, but it is still the key to the account.

I doubt anyone I know has a SIM PIN though!

Thats true, although I wonder how much of a hindrance it would be entering 2 pins when a phone needs restarting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikerlad

Nexus Imprint on the Nexus 6P works very well and is faster than touch ID on the 6S. The placement on the back seemed odd at the start but now feels a lot more natural there than on the front, like my OP2.

My Nexus 6P has software accelerated encryption and I see no need to turn it off. SIM PIN set up as well in case.

I am happy to be corrected, as you say, I only have experience of Samsung devices and they are most certainly not the best implementation IMHO. It responds most of the time to a single touch on my S6, its a wee bit slow. I don't know if 6.0 will change that seeing as its now baked in.

[Aye Up]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stiggles

Sony Z5 here encrypted and with fingerprint unlocking which is faster than the iPhone 6s and destroys it in comparison tests.

No impact on performance at all. Yes, on older versions of Android and older handsets there was. Now that's not the case whatsoever. I do wish people would stop thinking what happened in older versions happens now.

Also apples fingerprint sensor is not thermal. It's the same as any other sensor. Capacitive.

I suggest you research facts before posting educated guesses. Pretty much all of your post is totally wrong.

I am not sure why you're comparing Z5 encrypted with 6S encrypted when I only referred to the finger print sensor comparison.

You say the Z5 destroys the 6S in every benchmark, are we talking before or after encryption?

Humour me run a benchmark test using antutu on your device unencrypted and then encrypted. Because I am looking at 4 high and 3 mid Android 5.1.1 which all show a massive fall off in performance. Just to add even a 1st gen Moto G GPE on 5.1.1 shows the same thing.

Enabling encryption on Android usually comes at a performance cost. When Google initially launched Lollipop you may remember them saying they would be making encryption compulsary, they later backed down on that when it became evident there was a cost to performance. I have read many of the articles extolling the virtues of MM 6.0 and so far as I know none of them mentioned an increase in encryption performance.

Now seeing as MM 6.0 is only beginning to seed to some Z5 devices I assume you are basing your opinion on 5.1.1. I haven't used the sensor on a Z5 from what I can see its on the side of the handset, obviously through practice you will learn the placing of the sensor. I accept I'm wrong in terms the way Touch ID is registered.....it is still my opinion that Touch ID is the best implementation of finger print security.

I refer to this........

Quote:

Apple iPhone 6s. Apple continues to improve their chipsets each year and the tight integration between hardware, product design and software allow it to outpace Androids. Don't use core count as a measurement of performance. Runner-up: Samsung Galaxy S6. Qualcomm's fumble was Samsung Semiconductor's time to shine. And it does - the Exynos chipset in the S6 is still the best chipset available to Android phones. The GPU isn't ready for QHD gaming, but will do fine if you settle for 1080p.
While Apple and Samsung both have their own chipsets to fall back on, Sony is tied to Qualcomm and the Snapdragon 810 isn't the best. The Adreno GPU is solid, it's the CPU side that lets things down.

http://www.gsmarena.com/iphone_6s_ga...iew-1330p5.php

So whatever your benchmarks are referring to the Z5 at least according to GSM comes last nearly every test bar one.

So which comparison tests showed the Z5 beating the 6S (bar one)?

If its a matter of opinion say so, check your own bloody facts before you throw knives in my direction.

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

I am not sure why you're comparing Z5 encrypted with 6S encrypted when I only referred to the finger print sensor comparison.

You say the Z5 destroys the 6S in every benchmark, are we talking before or after encryption?

Humour me run a benchmark test using antutu on your device unencrypted and then encrypted. Because I am looking at 4 high and 3 mid Android 5.1.1 which all show a massive fall off in performance. Just to add even a 1st gen Moto G GPE on 5.1.1 shows the same thing.

Enabling encryption on Android usually comes at a performance cost. When Google initially launched Lollipop you may remember them saying they would be making encryption compulsary, they later backed down on that when it became evident there was a cost to performance. I have read many of the articles extolling the virtues of MM 6.0 and so far as I know none of them mentioned an increase in encryption performance.

Now seeing as MM 6.0 is only beginning to seed to some Z5 devices I assume you are basing your opinion on 5.1.1. I haven't used the sensor on a Z5 from what I can see its on the side of the handset, obviously through practice you will learn the placing of the sensor. I accept I'm wrong in terms the way Touch ID is registered.....it is still my opinion that Touch ID is the best implementation of finger print security.

I refer to this........


http://www.gsmarena.com/iphone_6s_ga...iew-1330p5.php

So whatever your benchmarks are referring to the Z5 at least according to GSM comes last nearly every test bar one.

So which comparison tests showed the Z5 beating the 6S (bar one)?

If its a matter of opinion say so, check your own bloody facts before you throw knives in my direction.

Check my own facts?

You claimed the finger print sensor on the 6s is the best because you think it's thermal. It's not.

How can it be the best implementation when it's the same as everyone else's? Your iPhone reader is slower than mine, in a more awkward place, so what makes it better?

The fingerprint reader on the z5 is actually in a brilliant place, since when you pick the phone up, your finger naturally is right on it. With the iPhone its not in a natural place.

In regards to encrypting, encryption on any device, and I mean any, comes at a price where large or small. Now on my z5 I have it enabled and its no slower at doing anything than my wife's z5 is and she does not have hers encrypted.

Now my issue with this whole iPhone users thing about "oh Android slows down, ours iPhones don't..." is you have no idea whether encryption slows down an iPhone since it's enabled by default. I'm willing to bet if you could turn it off, there would be a speed increase.

I also never once said the z5 destroyed the 6s in benchmarks. I was referring to the readers speed.

Benchmarks between 2 different os's mean absolutely nothing. In fact benchmarks mean nothing period in the real world. Benchmarking say between windows and osx is equally as stupid.

I wasn't throwing knives. I was pointing out your post was simply full of your opinion and wrong facts.

[Aye Up]

So I guess this was full of shit then?

Quote:

Sony Z5 here encrypted and with fingerprint unlocking which is faster than the iPhone 6s and destroys it in comparison tests.

You're a bit rich going after me when you do the same.

[prking]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

So I guess this was full of shit then?



You're a bit rich going after me when you do the same.

Do you know the difference between a comparison test and a benchmark? Obviously not.

[Stiggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aye Up

So I guess this was full of shit then?



You're a bit rich going after me when you do the same.

What the hell are you talking about? A comparison test is NOT a benchmark!!!

I was actually eluding to the Z5 fingerprint sensor destroying the 6S however..... 'Sony Z5 here encrypted and with fingerprint unlocking which is faster than the iPhone 6s and destroys it in comparison tests.

Like i also said, benchmarks are pretty much meaningless between 2 completely different operating systems anyway.

[Broken Hope]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stiggles

Sony Z5 here encrypted and with fingerprint unlocking which is faster than the iPhone 6s and destroys it in comparison tests.

No impact on performance at all. Yes, on older versions of Android and older handsets there was. Now that's not the case whatsoever. I do wish people would stop thinking what happened in older versions happens now.

Also apples fingerprint sensor is not thermal. It's the same as any other sensor. Capacitive.

I suggest you research facts before posting educated guesses. Pretty much all of your post is totally wrong.

I don't see the Z5 sensor destroying the 6s sensor on this video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBTK4Q_IyJE