Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is just around the corner and is expected to introduce iOS 16, the latest iteration of the iPhone’s operating system. While the company itself has not confirmed anything yet, rumours and leaks have been aplenty with the latest one claiming that a long-coveted feature might finally come to the iPhone.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will finally bring an Always-On Display (AOD) feature to some of this year’s iPhone 14 lineup. AOD has long been available on many Android devices and Apple was supposed to introduce the feature last year with the iPhone 13 Pro as the phone used an LTPO display but the feature was apparently scrapped before the launch.
Having an LTPO panel is essential to deliver AOD without consuming too much power although Apple’s current ProMotion technology has a range of between 10Hz to 120Hz. Display analyst Ross Young has said that he expects the iPhone 14 Pro series to sport ProMotion displays that are capable of going down to 1Hz, which would bring the rumour of AOD on the device more credibility as it would reduce the worry of the feature affecting battery life.
After all, the tech giant already has the experience implementing AOD with a 1Hz refresh rate on the Apple Watch since 2019 with the rollout of Series 5.
Meanwhile, Gurman also claims that AOD will be exclusively added to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, further differentiating the two higher-end phones from the rest of the lineup. There have also been rumours that the upcoming A16 chip will only be introduced to the Pro and Pro Max with the non-Pro models using last year’s A15 chip.
The Pro models will reportedly also feature new 48MP cameras on the back and could possibly even feature emergency satellite texts. You won’t have to wait long to find out if some of these rumours are true as iOS 16 together with iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16, and macOS 13 are expected to be unveiled at WWDC, which will be kicking off on 7 June at 1:00 AM Malaysian time.
(Source: Mark Gurman/Bloomberg.)
