The iPhone 14 Pro has changed quite a bit on the front end. The phone now has a completely different notch, but there’s a lot more. It’s a so-called: always-on display. OMT editor Jeroen Kraak tells you all about it.
The iPhone 14 Pro has the best notch ever. Apple itself mockingly calls it the dynamic island. Notifications are even integrated into that notch. Colleague Mark has already had the device in his hands and tells you all about it. But there is more, because the device now also has an always-on display. This of course raises some questions. Jeroen makes sure you know all about the screen.
An always-on display from the iPhone 14 Pro
Of course, an always-on display sounds great: a screen that never turns off. I myself sometimes accidentally leave the screen of my iPad Air on. When I come back a little later, there is a big bite out of my battery life. You don’t want that with your iPhone 14 Pro. It’s not the kind of device you want constantly on the charger.
Fortunately, the technology of the iPhone 14 Pro is different. This one has an OLED screen that features a variable refresh rate. This means it can switch how often the image needs to be refreshed in a second. With videos and games, of course you want smooth images, but that’s not necessary in every situation.
Always on! (Image: Apple)
Here’s how it works
The more often an image needs to be refreshed, the more energy it takes. The iPhone 14 Pro (Max) can switch between 1 and 120 Hz, or between 1 and 120 frames per second. With an always-on display, 1 is enough, so much less battery is used. Therefore, less power is needed and you don’t have to deal with a drained battery.
Still, you don’t want a boring black screen with only a clock on it. Fortunately, Apple has a solution for this. You can simply set a background. To save energy, this is made darker. In addition to the clock, you will also see notifications of messages and any battery status on the screen.
You may have noticed that this feature is only available for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. This is for a reason, as they are the only devices with the aforementioned special screen. The regular 14 and also the older Pro (Max) models do not have it.
More than just a notch (Image: Mark Hofman / OMT)
Sufficient battery life?
Besides the special screen, there is another reason why it only works on these two phones. That is because of Apple’s A16 processor. This has a special Display Engine to make the always-on display work.
All these measures ensure that your iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max can easily last you a day. The flagship can play music and stream videos just as long as the 13 Pro Max. So you really don’t have to worry about battery life.
