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I’ve been wanting it for a long time. Just nice to see my wallpaper and widgets/time. Don’t you like having your computer wallpaper/desktop showing and not going completely black after 1 minute?
If only there was a setting for that…
 
For me, always on display has been the single biggest improvement to quality of life relative to my phone or any gadget since Face ID. For most of the hours of the day, my phone is on my desk next to me and not in my pocket. Instead of having to tap it or press a button once in a while -- a necessary practice for over 15 years -- now I merely glance at it to check the time, weather, and notifications. I don't even have a clock in my room anymore. And if there are not notifications needing my attention, I don't have to pick it up. It has actually let me use my phone less, or at least more on my terms.

There are also smaller scenarios where it comes into play. For example, when I sign into a web site on my desktop and it sends a code to my phone number or email, I don't have to rush to look at my phone and remember the code before the screen turns off. The code stays on the screen and I can take my time. (Yes, I choose some notifications to display preview while unlocked, where there's never a privacy issue. They require unlock to see the whole message or use the app anyway.)

Any battery hit is more than worth it. Why? Because the phone is using battery to do what I have the phone for in the first place. But my battery life is fine with it on. Also, putting the phone on low power mode automatically turns on always on display. So that's just a toggle away in the control center. It is also available as a filter in focus mode, so for example, if you are in a situation where you are with a lot of people and would like the screen to stay off on the table, just add that to your do not disturb or a custom focus.
I was exactly the opposite.

Over the previous 15 years of use - it became ingrained in my head that if my phone is just sitting there and the screen is lit up - there’s a notification (i.e. something to look at).

With AOD on the iPhone, I found myself constantly glancing at my phone because the screen was lit, so I expected some sort of notification.

When I realized that - I turned AOD off and haven’t missed it a bit.

Tapping the screen on my phone to see the time or one of the widgets isn’t that different in my mind than lifting up my watch to see the time (and I’ve got an analog watch).

I also turned off raise to wake - because I didn’t need the phone screen turning on just because I picked it up.
 
If you set your wallpaper to, lets say your family pictures or favorites or whatever, it would be like a shuffling photo frame all day long when not used. Could be nice...
I thought that alway-on wallpapers will drain batteries almost as fast as backlit displays. Maybe someone else can chime in, but although you save power on refreshing the display, you still use power to light up individual pixels. The advantage comes when you have just small areas of the display to light up, like clocks and notifications.
 
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I'm a little confused how the iPad OLED is "state of the art" with 1600 nits peak brightness but the Samsung Tab S9 I picked up today with it's Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz display is rated at 2600 nits peak brightness. Traded in my old S8 and walked out the door for $199 (wish Apple did trade-in's like that!).
 
I'm a little confused how the iPad OLED is "state of the art" with 1600 nits peak brightness but the Samsung Tab S9 I picked up today with it's Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz display is rated at 2600 nits peak brightness. Traded in my old S8 and walked out the door for $199 (wish Apple did trade-in's like that!).
2600 nits is the peak brightness of their flagship Galaxy phone, not of their tablets.
Form all the reviews I see of the Tab S9, peak highlight brightness is about 750 nits.
These new iPad Pro have higher full screen SDR brightness (~1000 nits) than Tab S9 peak HDR highlight brightness (~750 nits).
The iPad blows away the Tab S9

Edit: I'm not aware of any other OLED display larger than phone size that has a full screen brightness over 500 nits. I may be missing one... I'd be happy to see a counterexample.
 
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sticking with my 2021 ipad pro and no one can tell me that's a bad idea lmao.
 
If you set your wallpaper to, lets say your family pictures or favorites or whatever, it would be like a shuffling photo frame all day long when not used. Could be nice...
Hmm yeah maybe if my iPad is always propped up in a visible place I might want that.
But what I’d really like is an ‘always on‘ TV. My TV is a big black monolith in my living room when it’s not being used. It’d be nice if it could always display nice images (while drawing little to no energy). Just did a super quick search and it doesn’t seem to be a thing sadly. But I probably just haven’t looked hard enough.
 
Y’all are starting to get it! Apple learned a valuable lesson with the original HomePod: don’t release everything all at once, because it prevents a clear upgrade path. With this change in display, Apple is telegraphing the upgrade path: the ALL NEW, ALWAYS ON display. This takes iPad Pro to a whole new level!
Apple was doing this long before the original Homepod.
 
I can’t believe people use ‘until if and when’.

Googled it, expecting this article to be one of half a dozen results…
 
When the day comes always-on is taking no-battery-at-all I would happily use it.
 
I’m not sure what the usefulness of an Always-On iPad display would be. Can someone educate me?
I was just thinking the same thing. I'm struggling to think of any reason.

Most people would have their iPad in a case and these cover the screen, and when you open the cover to use the iPad the screen wakes.
 
For me, always on display has been the single biggest improvement to quality of life relative to my phone or any gadget since Face ID.
I'm looking forward to upgrading my phone from the 11 at some point I've not had a device with AOD before. It would have been really useful a month ago when I was travelling and using my phone in Standby-Mode as an alarm clock.

I had to tap the display to see the time. I got used to doing that, but an AOD would've been great.

(As someone with dry fingers most of the Winter, TouchID would often fail to work. I also love FaceID.)
 
Expecting to see always on display on the next refresh of the iPad Pro
 
I was just thinking the same thing. I'm struggling to think of any reason.

Most people would have their iPad in a case and these cover the screen, and when you open the cover to use the iPad the screen wakes.
I want an always on screen - I want to use my iPad to display my calendar / to do list / other important info at the side of my desk. I already have a widescreen monitor, but I need all the space on it.

As it is, I'll have to plug it in and set off to 'never' but it's a pain to change it when I want to use it for casual browsing or Netflix watching away from my desk. An always on screen would also help avoid wires on my desk. I try to have a zero wires desk.
 
Pixel density of 264 for Pro 13 model is really not up to par. OLED display has different set of subpixels compared to LCD so even if they are the same resolution the subpixel density is simply not the same. Gaps between subpixels are much wider on OLED pentile pixel matrix.
 
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