iPhone 14 Pro with always-on? Maybe here we are, thanks to the new display

For several years now, there has been talk of the possible landing of functionality always-on display even on iPhones – already last year it was assumed that it would arrive on the current models -, however, expectations are constantly disregarded at every autumn event of the Cupertino house.

The main reason linked to the absence of this function seems to concern the technology of the screens equipped from year to year by the iPhones, which still does not seem to allow access to the always-on display without having to deal with a substantial increase in consumption. , but that could change with the next generation, particularly with iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

To give us some indication in this regard is the analyst Ross Young and his answer to a very specific question on the matter. The topic of the discussion is the spread of OLED panels with an update frequency capable of going down to 1 Hz, a technology that should also be available on the next top of the Apple range.

Questioned whether the presence of such novelty may be directly linked to the arrival of the always-on display mode on iPhonesYoung said he could not 100% confirm that possibility, but in his heart he expects it to be exactly like that. Recall that with iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, Apple has introduced LTPO OLED panels capable of offering a variable frequency between 10 and 120 Hz.

Apple probably believes that even 10 Hz is too much for the always-on display mode, which is why it is waiting to be able to equip the latest panels to bring a a function that has been present on Apple Watch for several generations, more precisely from Series 5 onwards. As we also reported in the review of that model, the Apple Watch display is already capable of go down to 1 Hz when it goes into always-on mode, so it is increasingly likely that iPhone will also be able to access this possibility following the implementation of the new screens.

This should be it a further differentiator between the Pro models and the basic versions of the iPhone 14, which adds to a particularly rich list. The last time we saw such a marked gap between the model Pro (even if it wasn’t called that at the time) and the basic one was in 2017, when Apple brought the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X to market.

Of course, this year the differences will not be so radical, however we remember that the 14 Pro will introduce the new design with hole and pill instead of the notch, a bought heavily refurbished rear photoa theoretically more performing chip than the basic models and – in all likelihood – the always-on function we talked about.