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Originally Posted by psmith2.0
Does the always-on thing impact battery life in any real, noticeable way, or, Apple being Apple, have they figured out some cool, clever way around this?
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They have.
The display on Watches with Always-On Display can change its refresh rate from 60 Hz all the way down to 1 Hz, depending on current requirements. So for always-on mode, it only actually updates once a second, which is fine if you're only casually glancing at it. But for regular mode, it updates 60 times a second, so animations can be smooth.
So, the cool, clever way around increased battery use that they needed a few years to implement is that while the display is always on, it doesn't update anywhere near as much as it usually would, which saves a lot of battery.
Quote:
Originally Posted by psmith2.0
I read a rumor a while back that future iPhones (2023, maybe?) will have this feature. I sure hope it's an option, can-turn-it-off kinda thing.
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Almost.
The iPhones 13 Pro sort of but not quite have this technology. They can change their refresh rate between 10 Hz, 60 Hz, and 120 Hz (and various steps in between), where 60 Hz is the traditional rate on the iPhone. 120 Hz looks (slightly) smoother yet, making something like scrolling feel even nicer. OTOH, you'll often have stuff that doesn't even need to update at 60 Hz. If you're watching a movie at 24 fps, the iPhone will now change to refresh at 24 Hz. If you're only staring at a bunch of text and not interacting with the screen, it goes down to 10 Hz.
So, for stuff where it matters, it now refreshes even more quickly, but for plenty of stuff, it refreshes less quickly. Which is part of why the video streaming battery life figures went way up between the 12 Pro and the 13 Pro: a typical video isn't 60 fps anyway, so the display can refresh a lot less now.
Now, as for the rumored feature, that would be one step further, and it is something some phones (e.g., Samsung) do, similar to the Watch's Always-On Display, where they go into a mode where you see a dim, simplified lock screen with the time and maybe a few other icons. It was theorized that these could be complications from the Watch, only scaled up to the iPhone screen. So you could have the current weather, your next calendar entry, whatever. (Samsung shows you the time, date, battery charge, and icons of apps that have recently sent you notifications. So, the phone will buzz when a notification comes in, you glance, and you see "oh, it's from app xyz, probably not important".)
It's still possible that this feature is yet to come without a hardware change, and that it just didn't make the cut for iOS 15. Maybe 16. Maybe 17. Or it could be that Apple is waiting until they can further slow down the display so they can reach 1-120 Hz instead of 10-120 Hz.
Or, it could be that the rumor was really wishcasting based on what some of the competition has been doing.