No, it’s not as dumb a question as it seems. While keeping the full iPhone display on full-time would quickly drain the battery, there are ways of keeping a partial display on all the time to display time and notification alerts – and LG has today confirmed that its upcoming G5 flagship handset will do just that.
LG hasn’t explained the technology, but the graphic it teased on Facebook shows a mono display, which raises a couple of possibilities that perhaps the iPhone could consider …
The first possibility is an e-ink display on the back of the handset. This is the approach that Yota took with its phones: white on black in the first generation, black on white in the YotaPhone 2. Yota’s solution isn’t ideal when most people use cases, but LG’s graphic shows a relatively small display – something that could be accommodated by a cut-out in the back of cases.
The second possibility is to use a low-power mode on an OLED display. An OLED uses no power to display black pixels, so devoting a small area to a low-light mono display when the phone is not in active use could be a viable approach. (While the tiny battery means it’s not always-on, this is the approach Apple takes with Power Reserve mode on the Watch.)
It’s long been rumored that Apple plans to switch from its existing IPS LCD displays to OLED, and while these have come to nothing so far, the company is said to be close to agreement with suppliers. The smart money, however, is on Apple not making the switch until 2018, so we shouldn’t expect OLED on the iPhone 7.
Apple could also use a similar approach to the Watch, which switches on the display when you turn your wrist to face you. It could leave the screen totally off when the light sensor indicates that it’s in a pocket or bag, but when the light sensor says it’s in front of you, any motion could immediately light up the mono display of clock and notifications. If you just wanted to check the time, or see whether you’ve missed any notifications, simply picking up the phone or nudging it on your desk would do the job.
Would an always-on or motion-activated time-and-notification display be a good move for future iPhones? Take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.
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No need with an Apple Watch. I barely use my phone at all anymore. Small things are handled by my Watch. Bigger things on my iPad Pro….
bot everybody owns all apple products
The vast majority of people around the world who use an iPhone don’t have an Apple Watch and will never have an Apple Watch. If you DIDN’T have an Apple Watch, would you find an always on screen useful?
I just don’t see how some always on stuff on a phone screen is really useful. It takes a second to push a button quickly to see whats on the lock screen and not much more then that to just unlock the phone in the first place which is the screen is on fully. I guess if I just left my phone sitting with the screen up on the table all the time or something and took a quick glance at the screen as I was walking by or something, OK, you have me there, but this really sounds more like just complete to lazy to even touch a button.
I think it’s really a pointless feature and I’d rather any number of better more important features be done long before this waste of time. How about a less buggy iOS for starters!!!
He’s trying really hard to tell us a story about how he uses apple products in a very stupid way. Let him be.
In fairness, the subject of this article and corresponding commentary was primarily about the iPhone. And the responses to the voting poll created by Mr. Lovejoy answer your question…
Agreed, with my Apple Watch I have no need for this. However, for those that don’t, it would be the next-best thing. I believe that this would be like the Apple Watch – people won’t know how useful it is until they have it.
You’re wrong. There are still lots of reasons why I would want to see my Lockscreen on my iPhone, even though I have an Apple Watch. The speed of Touch ID has made it impossible and impractical to use Handoff, or the Camera shortcut, or to access Notification Center or Control Center.
“The speed of Touch ID has made it impossible and impractical to use Handoff, or the Camera shortcut, or to access Notification Center or Control Center.”
You just need to change your habits for turning on the lock screen. Switch over to using the power button instead of pressing the home button. I’ve had to do that myself. Sucks to relearn a habit… but I won’t complain much since the tradeoff is blazing fast unlocking via touch-ID.
I want my phone to wake when picked up, or at least when I just tap the screen. Don’t want the screen to be always on though.
I don’t think having an “always on” or similar time function shouldn’t be on the fine. I don’t want my phone to be displaying info all the time, or when I take it out of the pocket, no matter what the display is. And with the e-ink, I always get a case for my phone, so that’s also a no. I have no problem pressing a button to get the time/lock screen notifications. Furthermore, I am wanting to get the Apple Watch 2, whenever that becomes available, so I would find that feature nearly useless when I get an Apple Watch.
Jony Ive mentioned in his New Yorker article that he found a display that completely lights up as something he’d want to change. For folks with an Apple Watch it’s not a critical need, but I wouldn’t mind an OLED display that triggers with motion, a tap or nudge, or pulling it from your pocket, that shows the clock and notifications. This along with a 3D Touch on the notification giving you action options :-)
I don’t see any value in it. If someone can come up with a good reason for wasting the battery however little it may be, then a faint maybe. But there is no value to it as far as I can see. I surely don’t notifications popping up willy nilly for anyone to see without me asking for them.
But there is a lot of value on a dynamic wallpaper that actually isn’t dynamic, since you have to press the screen for several seconds to get it moving. That is something really useful, right?
They said, “If someone can come up with a good reason for wasting the battery”
That doesn’t wasting energy when you aren’t looking at it. What’s your point?
He said “I don’t see any value on this”. I answered to that comment. Go take your made-up argument somewhere else.
“Always on” has no value. Wake automatically when lifted into position for use, like Apple Watch, has boundless value.
The entire Lockscreen of the iPhone has been rendered useless by the speed of Touch ID. Everyone knows this. Unfortunately the Lockscreen is the only way to access Handoff, a big feature of iOS and OS X, and Touch ID insists that you bypass the feature.
You answered your own question. With the speed of touch ID, it has rendered always-on as moot and completely unnecessary.
Use a finger that isn’t enabled for Touch ID.
Apple will have to address this soon when they remove the home button.
If you can’t press the button and move your finger fast enough then I declare that fully your problem. I’m so glad Touch ID is as fast as it is.
Pressing the home button twice to switch apps, allows you to choose Handoff as well, bro
You used something like the Moto X before that already has this feature? It’s seriously great, super intuitive and can be as private as you want.
Yes please. This would allow you to see lock screen notifications without the fear of TouchID being too fast. The less buttons pressed, the better.
If you only want to wake up your iPhone to see what time it is, just use the On/Off button instead of the home button.
What most people seem to miss is that there is a phone that does exactly this. It’s called the Moto X. Just look into active display, it’s literally the biggest feature of the phone. Being able to pull my phone out of my pocket and see the time/unlock button immediately is super intuitive and I don’t think people know what they’re missing until they try it. I’m a huge Apple dude, and I’m planning on getting the iPhone 7 later this year, but I got the Moto X because I needed an upgraded and someone was selling it for cheap. Seriously, active display is a massive feature. It’s one of those things you don’t even notice until you don’t have it. Obviously, you can turn the feature off if you don’t want it, but I don’t see any reason to exclude it. For those who can’t envision what I’m saying, just look up the feature.
tl;dr, Active Display FTW!
Agreed. I love my Moto X. I find myself swiping my hand over every screen in my house expecting them to do something.
There are a huge number of phones which do this, including the very cheap Moto G and some of the Lumia phones too. It is very handy.
Yes, a very useful feature, indeed. However, is better implement with OLED screens. With an OLED screen only the required pixels light up, not so with a IPS display. Also, you can customize which app is displayed; basically it takes the place of a notification light.
The real value in this concept, would be with the romoval of the home button entirely. If the fingerprint scanner were imbedded in the display, using motion would be the best method of activating the phone. An “always on” display doesn’t make sense without new battery technology to supply the necessary power to facilitate that… Unless your spending 80% of your day actually looking at the display of your phone.
Let’s put up a poll on something that most likely wouldn’t come to the iPhone until 2018. Ok.
Is it rewarding being condescending and trolling the blogs of reputable writers/commentators, because if so you must be the happiest person on Earth.
No. Always-on feature keep distracting you for having false impression of notification. When phone is around you, even with not intentional attention, it will keep bugging you to look at your screen for no reason. And more importantly, definitely don’t want this feature on cost of battery life.
Have you used something like active notifications on the Moto X?
No, I have never used it, but I know it very well. Saw enough videos of it. My point is always-on feature keep annoying every second even if you really don’t need to do anything with your phone. Its like refrigerator, you are not hungry, you even know whats in it, but you still go again and again, open it up, found as usual stuff and close the door without doing anything most of the time.
This only really hit me when I started wearing an Apple Watch and got used to how I could just twist it towards me to see quick info at a glance without having to press a button. After living with that, I wish the iPhone had a similar functionality, but not necessarily always-on or even pixel-sensitive. I could even just take some quick notification glances at once and be fine.
If anyone doesn’t understand why the watch does this and the phone doesn’t, then I really am speechless.
This to me is fairly pointless…. What is the need to have to be like every other phone. If you have an Apple Watch than you have the upper hand, if not then you just have to grab your phone. Bring this out then the next big fight is people complaining about battery and privacy. It is now and the iPhone has some decent battery life and people complain imagine then.
Oh you think Apple might add this and expand the battery on the phone?? Yeah keep waiting, cause I highly doubt it. This is lame technology.
I would rather have my phone screen turn on when I pick up my phone or touch/tap on the screen, WITH the option of turning that feature off than this crap.
Motion is tricky. The tap or nudge thing got really annoying with my friends moto. It’d be sitting on a table and someone would bump it or the table then suddenly it’d light up the text and call attention to itself. I noticed this multiple times and it’d never fail to make me glance over at it. It was inelegant.
Always on just seems like a waste of energy. It should at least use proximity to fully turn off when in a pocket or bag. But even then I don’t want it always on if my phone is sitting on my desk. I look for the time on my computer.
I think they’d really have to nail down the motion specific for pulling a phone up from a pocket or bag. If people desire the home button to be moved/removed I think 3d touching the screen is the best backup if the motion fails.
I imagine they could remove the lock button. If unlocking becomes as easy as touching the display, the concept of a “lock screen” will go away. It will be like the apple watch. Automatically lock when the display goes to sleep, maybe use motion to detect when to do that too. If you really needed to lock you could just press home a couple times.
No, battery life is bad enough.
YES, it needs to behave exactly like the Apple Watch and turn the display on when it is lifted into position for use. These days, the Lockscreen has become completely useless thanks to speed of Touch ID. The normal process is to pick up the phone, press the home button with your thumb to wake it up, and with Touch ID 2 the phone instantly unlocks to the Home Screen. There are several reasons why someone might not want to do that. To see just the time, to check Notification Center, or MOST importantly, to ever use Handoff or the Camera shortcut.
Handoff is one of the best features of iOS, and I’m sure it gets used precisely never by people with an iPhone 6s.
Wake the display when motion is detected.
“the Lockscreen has become completely useless thanks to speed of Touch ID”
That’s the 3rd time you’ve mentioned this in this thread… and it is easily fixed by simply using the power button to wake the screen instead of pressing the home button. Find something else to rant about!
A couple years ago, I spent a month or two without a watch and used my phone as my personal timepiece. What a burden to have to pull it out of my pocket every time I wanted to know the time. I’ll stick to having my watch hang from my belt where I can easily pivot it into view and glance down.
having your watch hanging from your belt? … i bet that looks funny
Might look funny with a normal watchband but I use this Silverfoot Watch Holder: http://www.rei.com/product/731876/silverfoot-watch-holder
Maybe not necessarily always on, but tap to wake and cover to sleep like the Apple Watch would be very welcomed I feel certain. Touch ID on the 6s is just too fast to be able to effectively use lock screen shortcuts anymore.
While I can see some practical uses for it, especially time-keeping functionality, I doubt Apple would go through the trouble to add the feature because it potentially cannibalizes Apple Watch sales. Apple is trying to convince us that we need the Apple Watch to handle time-keeping and important notifications. Adding that overlapping functionality to the phone makes the Apple Watch less desirable.
No, just put an LED indicator on the front of the phone like just any Android device have already for notifications.
I don’t care about the specific technology, just give me the display-always-on feature! :-)
The only compelling aspect of an Android device for me is the ability to see useful info at a glance on the home screen.
Have people become so lazy that we don’t even want to click one button to see the lock screen anymore?
How about having reminders/grocery lists actionable from the lock screen. Checking off grocery lists in a pain in the arse having to unlock the phone after getting each item in the list.
The Apple Watch is awesome at this BTW. My wife and I use a shared Reminders list… and while I’m shopping I can just raise my wrist and tick items off as I grab them. Frees me up from having to have a phone in my hands while pushing the cart/etc. as well.
I’d like to see this as part of a “Pocket mode”.
When the screen is upside down, in pocket, then the phone goes into a standby mode where the screen and touch is turned off.
Putting the phone right-way up turns on the screen.
It works with a transparent cover.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/10/lg-g5-quick-cover/
I would like to see a smart connector cover with an oled display built in for notifications.
The phone already has a similar feature whereby if it’s faced down the screen wont come on for alerts and notifications etc — before it would…
i think an e-ink display wouldnt work with apples design unless they had a glass double mirror backing that hid the screen — e-ink would not go well with most phones, and then theres the issue of using cases, and lighting etc…
What would be nice is adding a smart connector – they could have a smart screen cover that has the build in e-ink display… not only will it protect your screen, but it will give you useful info…
but having said all that — i don’t think it is needed at all… if you are getting lots of notification, then probably most are not needed — i turn most of my game alerts off… i have no issues in making my iphone 6+ last more than a day… if im not using it for internet or talking and i have it faced down, the battery has lasted over 2 days… and i dont even use the iwatch (yet)…still thinking about that…lol
I don’t know if this is the answer. I find the issue lies with how quickly Touch ID unlocks the device. If I want to see notifications on the lock screen I have to remember to hit the On/Off button rather that the Home button. Otherwise the device unlocks and then I lose those notifications on the lock screen. I think the Home Button should have a Touch ID tap, which wakes the lock screen, identifies it’s you, and then displays notifications with ‘sensitive info.’ Pressing the home button will unlock. And pressing the on/off button will show notifications but without any further details – like the content of the message.