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As someone who suffered first hand with the expensive results of a prematurely aged OLED, I too would not enable this feature, no matter how small the risk to modern panels. Mitigation techniques are just that - mitigations - not eliminations.

Of course we assume that Apple would make it optional, and in all likelihood they will, but then this is the company who positions itself as the paragon of privacy and security yet doesn't give users an option to stop strangers/bad actors/pranksters from accessing the camera and flashlight shortcuts from the lock screen. TLDR; we shouldn't be surprised by any design choices made by Apple. They have form for doing the unexpected.
 
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It's both funny and sad (without disrespect) to see people wildly speculating here about how this disruptive new technology will ever be mastered when this has been around for literally over a decade and has even been present on the Apple Watch for three generations already.

It's okay to enjoy the great benefits of Apple's platform, but try peeking over the fence every once in a while. This existed on Symbian(ok, dead), Windows Phone(somehow feels even deader?) and Android(pattern emerging? ?), but I still miss it on my iPhone. And no, I don't think that it was AOD that killed these platforms.

And I also, perhaps naively, imagine that a company like Apple *is* capable of working on TWO things at the same time. So just because team A is working on AOD doesn't mean team B can't fix bugs in iCloud and so on. Does it make things more complex in the background? Yes, absolutely. Should a trillion dollar corporation be able to handle that? Also yes.

*disclaimer: I fully expect Apple to give people the choice to turn this off if this gets implemented. Like they did with AW.
 
Will I be able to disable ‘always on display’ or will that option be introduced as an accessibility feature in 2032?
 
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Useful for the time I guess…

Seems equally likely to just keep people even more locked in and always paying attention to their phone

I’ve been at some dinners where things were literally worse just because somebody has their phone on the table. I also have a couple friends who have boxes in their house where both parents have to agree to stash their phone each night so they can actually have some quality family time that’s not interrupted by calls, texts, notifications or just the pull to do something on the device.

It’s incredible how distracting and damaging these devices are to normal in person human interactions and activities
I totally agree on the spirit of this post.
 
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Will I be able to disable ‘always on display’ or will that option be introduced as an accessibility feature in 2032?
Probably not right away initially, that will most likely be a ‘midterm’ iOS update, once Apple receives complaints that there’s no option to disable AOD.
 
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I’m going to bet on this: the big advantage of this over the implementation in Android is that it will be a full lock screen, including coloured background, because it relies more on 1Hz refresh rate than disabling pixels.
It won't have any advantages vs implementations on Android phones.
And by the way on Samsung smartphones you can get a picture on lock screen with colored icons and everything.

Most of the Android phones (all that I know) just display specific thin text and icons on black background.
That is incorrect. And which Android smartphones do you know?
 
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Bout friggin time Apple adds AoD ( Always on Display ). It's a great feature to have, actually I don't like a smartphone without it.

I'm a Nexus / Pixel guy, AoD came out way back with the Nexus 6P I believe? And I've loved it on every phone since.

With the iPhone, if your not using your phone, and it's just laying on the table or desk and you walk by it, the phone seems turned off, no idea if you have a missed call or missed text. But with AoD you can just glance at your phone and notice a missed notification without actually needing to pick it up. It's just a very convenient quick way to check without actually grabbing your phone.

Or let's say it's a workday, you put your phone in silent mode, and it's on a standup charger, but a few feet away from where your working on your PC. It's nice to see a missed notification there without actually needing to touch the phone to check it manually. Let's say you turned your back to the phone for a minute doing some paperwork and didn't see the incoming text, but with AoD you'd see it after you turned your back again to your desk, not needing to grab your phone to check it.

It's a no brainer option to have, and barely uses much battery, maybe 2% to 3% over a full day. With a Pro Max type phone you would never notice the battery drain whatsoever.

And if it's not for you, ok don't enable it, but it's a nice option that others want.
 
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I remember having an always on display on my ancient Samsung S7 (which had fine battery life). Was useful and very surprised Apple never implemented it.

I’ve joined the “current phone now good enough to last a few years” club. Cost of living crisis means spending another £500 is just not a priority. (Would get trade in etc to top up to the £1K needed for a new phone).
 
Burn-in gate
Image retention is a very real side effect to AOD, but it’s also not immediate and isn’t as drastic as others portray, where it’s highly visible. In some cases, you’d really have to look to even see any retention left behind. I also suspect as OLED panels have matured and been tweaked over the years, image retention has been reduced significantly, but still exists to a slight degree.

FYI…..That’s not what ‘Gate’ means.
 
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