【Nanda van Bergen】

Apple unveiled three new phones on Nanda van BergenTuesday, including the very large and expensive iPhone X. But when the company tried to show off one of the phone’s fancy new features, things did not go as planned—and it was pretty embarrassing.

During an on-stage demonstration, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi attempted to unlock an iPhone X using its new Face ID feature. But when he held up the phone to his face, the software did not recognize it, prompting Federighi to use the device's passcode instead.

As we all know, tech doesn't always work the way we want it to. But when you're a billion dollar company and you just finished explaining how complex this new system is, it better work.

"Here is iPhone 10. Now, unlocking it is as easy as looking at it, and swiping up," Federighi said to the crowd. The Face ID failed.

"Let's try that again," he said as he held the device in his hand. That's when the phone prompted Federighi to enter the phone's passcode instead. Federighi quickly recovered, and without missing a beat, he picked up a backup phone, which worked perfectly.

The problem? While some are super excited about this new feature, it also creeps some people out. Couple that with the chance that maybe it doesn't work so well, and Apple may have just ruined its chance at winning over those on the fence.

Giving Apple the benefit of doubt here, the Face ID fail could have been a one-off occurrence. But I guess we'll find that out when people get their hands on the iPhone X, and try it out using their own faces.