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what are these three circles on the iphone?

P

psywzrd

macrumors 68030
Original poster
It's probably nothing but I had my iphone in very bright sunlight today and noticed three circles underneath the glass directly to the left of the earpiece as you're facing the screen (the light needs to be very bright in order to see them). Does anyone know what these are? Could they possibly be unused LED notification lights? It would be great if they were because it drives me crazy that I have to unlock my phone to see if I have any new emails. If Apple can't get notifications to show up on the unlock screen, LED notifications would probably be the next best thing.

I apologize if this has already been discussed but my search came up empty.
 
I am pretty sure those are the sensors for the phone. One is probably for sensing light, how bright it is to adjust the screen. Another might be to sense the proximity to your face so the screen can be turned off. I noticed those too. I just automatically assumed they were sensors, mostly cause I had been looking for them.

They are pretty easy to notice in bright light, they actually look like 3 red circles in the glass. You have to hold the phone at the right angle to see them also. They form an L on the top left of the phone.
 
They're the proximity sensors that turn off the display when you put the phone to your face during a phone call. That's so you don't push random things on your screen with your ear or cheek. 😉
 
Various sensors. The light sensors that adjust the brightness of your screen if you have auto brightness on. The sensors that notice if the phone is close to your ear to turn off the display, etc.'

Edit: holy crap, 4 posted, gah. beat to it by far 😛
 
Those are just different sensors, ambient light and proximity are the ones I believe, no LED indicators or anything.
 
Holy rapid fire!!! Thanks for the quick responses😀😀 - I guess it was wishful thinking on my part. I still hope Apple figures out a way to bring more notifications to the unlock screen though.
 
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