When Apple implements an Android feature on its iPhone, it clearly puts a lot of thought into it. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max finally got an always-on display. This is a handy feature that helps users have a glimpse of notifications and widgets without unlocking their phones. This is a new thing in iPhone world. And Apple, of course, has switched up things and doing it differently than everyone else.
To be more detailed, always-on displays allow a phone to display basic details like the date, time, and notifications even when it’s locked and resting on a table. Typically, your whole display doesn’t remain on, just the most important parts of it. On Samsung phones, for example, you might see a black screen with just the clock and some app icons, a calendar widget lit up depending on what you chose in the settings. This is particularly useful because you don’t need to tap the phone or pick it up to see important info.
Apple looked at what other guys were doing and they said….. Nope. We can do it better. They took their time and came up with something new and, perhaps, a lot better with Apple’s implementation: instead of an always-on screen that’s mostly off, Apple’s always-on screen remains on, just a lot dimmer.
This feature will add widgets and complications to the lock screen. All of those widgets and complications will remain visible on the iPhone 14’s always-on screen, even when the phone isn’t actively in use. Apple’s big twist is that the iPhone will also continue to show your lock screen wallpaper, colors and all, just significantly dimmed down. The whole screen really will remain “always on.”
Apple always waits to add this feature on the iPhones as it waits on the technology to grow and this has been the same for its always-on screen to perform better than competitors.
The technologies that make iPhone 14 Pro’s Always-on display work
OLED Screens
Apple waited until the iPhone had implemented OLED displays most of which are made by Samsung. These screens allow only the pixels that are lit to require power and they can all be lit at different levels. That’s something that OLED displays of all sizes, whether they’re in phones, smartwatches, or TVs, have in common. In comparison to normal LCD screens, OLEDs are much more power-efficient than other display types, and always-on screens tap into that unique trait to put far less strain on the battery than it normally does in a fully “on” state.
The new A16 Bionic Processor
One may ask, but the iPhone 14 also has an OLED screen, what doesn’t it have this feature? Well, each iPhone 14 model has an OLED screen (as have many models since the iPhone X), only the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max have the extra hardware necessary to power an always-on display. The company says that a number of new technologies that make the display incredibly power efficient, including multiple coprocessors within its latest A16 Bionic chipset. This is the biggest difference Apple has from its Android competitors.
Dynamic refresh rate
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max displays can dynamically adjust their screen refresh rate from a battery-intensive 120Hz all the way down to a low-power 1Hz mode, meaning it only refreshes once per second. When there is no action on the screen, the phone runs on the low-power 1Hz refresh
Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) screen
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max utilize a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) screen within its display to dynamically adjust the refresh rate, and Joswiak said it also allows for “the display to intelligently dim the entire Lock Screen.” Similar tech can also be found in the Apple Watch Series 5 and newer (excluding the Apple Watch SE), plus some Android phones, like Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra. This is a fairly new technology for phones and not something you’re guaranteed to find in every device.
What we stand to wait for is how Apple’s always-on feature will affect battery life, but previous iterations of its LTPO screen and low-power display driver delivered great battery results if the Apple Watch Series 5 is to go by. We are sure the A16 Bionic chipset will have to pull some muscles here.
While you could typically expect improved cameras, along with a few other exclusive tricks on the latest iPhones, the always-on feature is a visible and useful change to anyone who sees it in action. Hopefully, Android competitors will chase after a way to bring colorful, more info-dense always-on screens to their new phones, too. The problem with Apple’s competitors is that they need to up their Processor game and well, yes Android as a mobile operating system an efficient compared to iOS.
