I purchased a refurbished 13 Pro (not from Apple, they don't sell refurb 13's yet). It's in really fantastic condition (screen, exterior, camera, etc), however the Face ID does not work. The phone detects an issue with the depth camera, and doesn't allow me to enter the setup.
This is not a big deal to me, especially since the phone is in such good condition. I don't really mind using a pin to unlock the phone, though I would prefer Touch ID. I could send it back, but I'm not sure the next one I would get would be in as good of condition as this one.
Is there more to consider? Is Face ID a particularly useful feature (I've only ever had finger-print)? Is the depth camera used for any other critical functions or limit other functionalities of the phone? Thanks for the info!
Could it be some aftermarket camera on the front that they put in there?
It’s most likely someone did an amateur screen repair and broke the cameras ribbon cable somewhere. There’s a plethora of sensors and it happens to be software locked to the phone at factory. So you can’t replace it and maintain full functionality. Due to this the person not only loses faceID functionality but they also lose the ability to use Apple Pay, or store information in the Secure Enclave chip like credit cards, tickets, insurance etc.