What’s a smartphone’s prime function? Taking photos? Making calls? Surfing the internet? Nah, all wrong. It’s to tell you the time. You could tell me it’s bullshit, but ask a bunch of people, “What’s the time?” and watch them pull out their devices to check. That’s just how a lot of people rely on their phones lately.
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The video notes that the iPhone 13 will have a 120Hz LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) display which will show you information such as time, battery level, and weather in the always-on mode.
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Android phones have been doing this for a while, and Apple also did this with its Apple Watch 5 series. Because of OLED displays on iPhones, Apple could activate certain pixels while keeping the rest of the screen dimmed to display information.
I’m personally excited about this because I have this habit of tapping my iPhone display to look at the time or to see if I’ve received any notifications. With an always-on display, I wouldn’t need to do that and can avoid using the phone if I haven’t got any important alerts.
I really hope this feature makes it to the final version of the phone. Get to work, Tim Apple.
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Published February 15, 2021 — 06:06 UTC