Latest iOS 16 Beta Further Suggests Always-On Display Coming to iPhone 14 Pro

[MisterSavage]

The most logical implementation of Apples AOD is going to be limited to time and widgets. If a user has a legitimate security concern about what's in a lock screen widget, they shouldn't put it on the Lock Screen anyways.

Plus when creating widgets developers have the option to hide privacy sensitive data if the screen is locked.

iOS 15 Lets Developers Hide Sensitive Information in Widgets on the Lock Screen Until iPhone Is Unlocked

On iOS and iPadOS 15, Apple is adding new functionality to WidgetKit, introduced last year, that will allow developers to classify information deemed as sensitive in their widgets, meaning that specific information will only become viewable on the lock screen when the user unlocks their device...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Shameelza]

I see where you're coming from and it looks like a trivial thing to do, but existing OLED displays can't go as low as 1 HZ which is why new hardware is required.

My feeling about this is that turning off AOD will definitely lead to some battery life improvements, but negligible since the drain with AOD is small enough for Apple to claim the same battery life as iPhone 13 Pro.

I don’t think any new hardware is required. Samsung had an always on display ever since their Galaxy S7 in 2016. That did not have a variable refresh rate. Any iPhone from the iPhone X upwards with OLED should have this.

 

[Zaft]

It’s getting to a point now where android and iOS are almost the same. Both are converging on one another.

 

[Zaft]

I don’t think any new hardware is required. Samsung had an always on display ever since their Galaxy S7 in 2016. That did not have a variable refresh rate. Any iPhone from the iPhone X upwards with OLED should have this.

Correct, pixels are not on anyway so refresh should not matter that much.

Apple rolls out features on their timeline. But usually it comes out more polished.

 

[1557750]

Meh... I’m not seeing the appeal of it and this will definitely not be my reason for upgrading.

Usually if I’m sitting, my iPhone is laying near me. If I get a notification the screen comes on briefly and I can glance down to see what it is. I don’t mind tapping to wake and don’t need anything else eating up battery, no matter how small it is.

It’s a gimmick. Wasn’t impressed when Android came with it and Apple hasn’t changed my mind just because it’s Apple. It will be a cool for some users, and I understand that. Just not me 😋

 

[svish]

Expecting Always on display to be present this year. Will be very disappointed if it is not available this year.

 

[cyanite]

you pick up the phone to look and Face ID unlocks you to the Home Screen

FaceID doesn’t do that. That requires a swipe.

10Hz literally uses 10x the amount of power as 1Hz.

No. Refreshing the screen does take power, but even I refreshed it has to light up some LEDs all the time.

 

[sylwiusz]

Is this a common feature in other smartphones?

Edit: It looks like it is common on many phones running Android. Not sure how widely used it is but an unscientific poll on a tech site shows about a 50-50 split. The data are meaningless other than to suggest that if about half of tech-minded people visiting a tech site report using it, actual use is much lower by “regular” people.

It will be interesting to see how Apple’s implementation is.

Not only Androids, it has been available already 11 years ago on Meego-based Nokia N9, and later on many Windows Mobile based Nokia Lumia Phones, so yeah, veery late, because technically it has always been perfectly possible for almost every single AMOLED-based display out there. So Apple could easily implement it via FW update to iPhone 12, not only top-end iPhone 14...

 

[CarAnalogy]

Honestly, I don’t think the always-on display adds utility to my AppleWatch, and I don’t think it will add any to my iPhone.

If I want to see the screen, raise to wake does the job 99% of the time already

Agreed, I always turn it off and despite what Apple says there is a very obvious difference in battery life.

 

[FelixDerKater]

How many years since the Galaxy S7 introduced this?

 

[1557750]

How many years since the Galaxy S7 introduced this?

Does it matter? 😂 Wasn’t impressed then, and not impressed just cause Apple did it.

Bout time all the fanboys from both sides get their heads out of the sand and quit living their lives based off a ‘who did what first’ mindset.

Silly people.

 

[JulianL]

…
My feeling about this is that turning off AOD will definitely lead to some battery life improvements, but negligible since the drain with AOD is small enough for Apple to claim the same battery life as iPhone 13 Pro.

You might well be right but as another person that isn’t interested in AOD I’m really hoping that other apps will be able to take advantage of the lower 1Hz refresh rate so that those apps only sip power even when running in the foreground. I use the Kindle app on my iPhone a lot, it’s my primary reading device, and that really is an app that doesn’t need to refresh more often than 1Hz for basically the whole time I’m reading apart from the maybe half a second every minute or so when I do a page turn. Reading static news sites, looking at messages and all sorts of other stuff are examples of apps where a lot of the time (in computer terms) is taken up by doing absolutely nothing while the pitifully slow human reads static info on the screen. Obviously 1Hz in those situations would use more power than when in AOD mode because the screen wouldn’t be dimmed but I assume it would still be a worthwhile improvement vs the current 10Hz lowest Pro rate that, over 4 hours of ebook reading for example, could be a useful reduction in battery drain.

 

[MisterSavage]

Battery life has been a complete non-issue with my watch with AOD turned on, logging a workout, and charging every day.

The battery life of my current iPhone pro and previous pro have been absolutely fantastic and I'm not even remotely close to empty at the end of the day. Bring on the AOD lock screen widgets.