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When will the iPhone get under-screen Face ID?

Beyond-iPhone-13-Better-Blue-Face-ID-Single-Camera-Hole.jpg

In April 2023, display industry analyst Ross Young shared a roadmap showing that iPhone 17 Pro models would feature under-display Face ID. In May 2024, however, Young said he heard this change had been delayed until 2026. If so, that means that under-screen Face ID could debut on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max next year.

iPhone 18 Pro models with under-screen Face ID would still have a pinhole at the top of the display for the front camera, similar to newer Android smartphones like Google's Pixel 9 and Samsung's Galaxy S24. It is unclear if the devices would have a Dynamic Island, a feature that helps to hide the Face ID sensors on current iPhones.

In the past, Young has said that he expects iPhones to eventually have both under-screen Face ID and an under-screen front camera.

With these changes, the iPhone could eventually have a true all-screen design.

Article Link: iPhone With Under-Screen Face ID: What the Latest Rumors Say
 
The technology is there. Apple has the patents and yet we’ll never see Underscreen Face ID because of the battery taking so much space
 
If so, that means that under-screen Face ID could debut on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max next year.
But what awesome new features will they add to the iPhone XX if they bring out all the good stuff so soon? 🤪

Seriously though, as near as I can tell, the upcoming rumors go something along the lines of:

iPhone 17 Pro: 12 GB of RAM
iPhone 18 Pro: under-screen Face ID + pinhole camera
iPhone 19 Pro: (the same fate as the iPhone 9?)
iPhone XX: ????
 
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Well, everything well hidden under the screen would really excite me! 👍

I find myself wondering if perhaps the reason Apple hasn't already done under-screen Face ID is because they're waiting for the technology to reach the quality level that they can just jump straight to having all of it, under-screen.


I wouldn't hold my breath on that one; while that branch of technology certainly could have had a lot of life left to it, I believe Apple's clean break is pretty evident; I don't think they're going to backpedal from Face ID on iPhones.
 
The notch is horrible and has been since the day it was introduced.
The notch doesn’t bother me as much as a giant hole in the screen does. When it is flush with the edge it takes up less usable space and is just part of the bezel.

Apple’s decision to play up the technological weakness of a big ass hole in the middle of your viewable area was to make it a feature not a bug.

So even more of the screen is unusable and it’s even more distracting than just having a bit more bezel at the top (visually speaking).

I never loved the notch either, but it’s just gone from bad to worse. I think I’m going to stay on my 13 Pro until they fix it.
 
The notch is fine. The Dynamic Island pill sucks.
In some ways, it kind'a does... for now. I view it as a forward facing feature: when Apple implements a proper under-screen camera system, the Dynamic Island should morph into something that only exists when it needs to, and can fade away entirely when the camera system is not active. At that point, maybe it'll finally make sense, and those who just think it sucks will become less critical of Apple's design decisions.

Oh, who am I kidding. There will always be "Apple's designs suck!" kind of people, regardless of what Apple does. But that's okay; we all get to have opinions.

(Except that my opinions are always more right than yours, of course. ;) )
 
At least they added some functionality to the DI. The notch was just a horrible "design" compromise.

So, 2026 is it? Only 6 years late to the party then.

Thing is they could have done similar with the notch. But the functionality of the DI is just making up for their weak persistent notification system and weak notification system in general.
 
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In some ways, it kind'a does... for now. I view it as a forward facing feature: when Apple implements a proper under-screen camera system, the Dynamic Island should morph into something that only exists when it needs to, and can fade away entirely when the camera system is not active. At that point, maybe it'll finally make sense, and those who just think it sucks will become less critical of Apple's design decisions.

Oh, who am I kidding. There will always be "Apple's designs suck!" kind of people, regardless of what Apple does. But that's okay; we all get to have opinions.

(Except that my opinions are always more right than yours, of course. ;) )

That makes sense and would be decent transition. They way I currently see it is that they could have done the same thing currently done with the island, but with the notch. The pill pushed the black area of the screen further down and left a tiny strip of useless pixels above it.
 
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