Dhruv Butani / Android Authority
TL;RD
- Apple will reportedly debut always-on display technology on the iPhone 14 series.
- This comes more than a decade after the technology first came to smartphones.
Always-on displays have been around for years, but you won’t find this feature on iPhones. However, it looks like Apple will finally implement it later this year.
BloombergMark Gurman of Mark Gurman reported in his Power-On newsletter that iOS 16 does indeed include support for an always-on display:
This would allow the iPhone to significantly reduce the frame rate on the lock screen and display quickly viewable information, similar to newer Apple Watches.
Gurman claims that the always-on display functionality will be exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, adding that the feature was originally planned for the iPhone 13 series.
A long-awaited feature
Always-on displays are commonly used to display the time, weather, battery percentage, and/or notifications, and have been around for over a decade. The technology debuted on Nokia’s Symbian smartphones in 2009 and 2010 before making its way to Android via Motorola, LG and Samsung a couple of years later.
Still, it’s better late than never for Apple, and the combination of an OLED screen and a low refresh rate (say, 1Hz) could have a negligible impact on battery life on the iPhone 14 series.
However, this is not the only update coming with iOS 16, as it is believed that Apple will also bring wallpapers with “widget-like” features and improved windows/multitasking.
