How will the iOS 16 lock screen look on the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display?
The iPhone 14 Pro is just one of four iPhones almost certainly to be revealed in just three days, on Wednesday, September 7. There’ll also be an iPhone 14, a similar phone with a bigger display, perhaps called iPhone 14 Plus, and the big-screen iPhone 14 Pro Max.
September 5 update below. This post was first published on September 4, 2022.
But the two Pro phones look like they’ll have the coolest new feature exclusively, and that’s an always-on display.
September 5 update. Another leak specific to iPhone 14 Pro has just landed. (Seriously, is Apple going to have anything new to announce on Wednesday? Yes, of course it is.) A new leak from someone calling themselves yeux1122, who has a variable track record for accuracy, has shown what purports to be a case for the iPhone 14 Pro.
So what, you might say? Well, this case shows a very different camera panel. While we were already expecting that this would have a bigger panel overall, this new case shows that the individual lenses will be significantly larger, too.
In one way, this is not surprising as it’s believed that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will have a 48-megapixel sensor for one of the cameras. If the sensor is larger, as it’s very likely to be, then a larger lens is needed.
Of course, the other lenses may not strictly speaking need to be as big, but Apple has historically made sure that the three lenses on its Pro iPhones are all the same size for design reasons rather than photographic necessity. A note of caution here: if you click on yeux1122’s page, linked above, you’ll see the new lenses are clearly different and bigger. However, some case manufacturers are generous with the size of gap they give to fit over lenses. The LiDAR scanner also has a bigger aperture in these new cases and I’m not sure the scanner itself will be any different. Even so, the prospect of bigger lenses is exciting.
Apple is not the first company to offer this handy extra, meaning you don’t need to pick up your phone or tap on it to show the time or whether you have notifications waiting. But a new leak, picked up by MacRumors, suggests that Apple’s always-on screen will have been worth the wait.
The report claims that the lock screen coming with iOS 16 will work differently on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max compared to any other iPhone that’s iOS 16-compatible.
On the new Pro iPhones, the lock screen will interact with the always-on display and utilize the colors of wallpapers and depth effects, for instance. This is pretty cool stuff.
Is this what the always-on screen will look like on the iPhone 14 Pro?
Apple has given us a clue as to what it will look like already, on the Apple Watch. Since Series 5, there’s been an always-on display. The Watch faces have two states, one when it’s active, such as when you raise your wrist, and another that uses less energy on the Watch’s OLED screen that kicks into place after a few seconds.
This second state is much more muted in terms of colors, doesn’t show the passing of seconds and has much less information. Until you raise your wrist again.
According to the leak, the lock screen wallpapers will be darkened, with depth effects removed and the foreground dimmed. However, it won’t simply be black and white: the foreground will be “tinted with color and feature edge highlights depending on user customization”.
Widgets, such as text message notifications or weather, will be visible but will fade in and out to prevent OLED burn-in.
Notifications will slide in from the bottom on the always-on scree just as they do on the regular lock screen, staying visible for 10 seconds.
All of which is very exciting and I personally can’t wait. Well, we none of us have to: all will be revealed this coming Wednesday.
