A recent rumor suggests that the 2024 iPhone 16 Pro will feature an under-display Face ID technology to give users more screen space.
Apple has spent the last two years working on getting rid of the infamous notch that houses the 12-megapixel front-facing camera and Face ID technology.
Initially, the notch on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max became significantly smaller than their predecessors. One year later, Apple replaced that gap with Dynamic Island — a pill-shaped cutout that changes shape and size to display notifications.
It appears Apple is not done tweaking its display technology.
According to The Elec, the Cupertino-based company intends to move the TrueDepth camera for FaceID on the iPhone 16 under the display. In other words, the 2024 iPhone’s biometric technology will have a front-facing hole instead of the current pill-shaped cutout.
“In the past, the front of the iPhone housed the camera module and Face ID while applying a notch design with a part of the screen recessed downward,” says The Elec. “If a hall display is applied instead of a notch design, more area can be used as a display, increasing user immersion.”
There’s more!
Under-Display Face ID Technology Not Ready For iPhone 15 Pro
According to The Elec, the pill-shaped display cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro will return on the iPhone 15 Pro models due to limitations of the current under-display technology. This is in line with another rumor which suggests that the entire iPhone 15 lineup will get the Dynamic Island feature.
The report further claimed that Apple could adopt an under-panel camera (UPC) in the future — maybe two years after implementing the under-display Face ID technology. That means the iPhone 19 Pro models coming out in 2027 may not have any display cutouts.
What’s more, The Elec report corroborates a Ross Young tweet from May 2022.
Based on the technical challenges remaining for under panel cameras to meet discerning brands quality requirements as well as panel manufacturers' cost requirements, I still believe this roadmap makes sense for the iPhone. pic.twitter.com/3ck5X3sVcL
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 10, 2022
The display analyst shared a roadmap that shows how Apple could implement new under-display technology in the coming years. It also details a cycle that involves alternating the technology between the Pro and non-Pro models.
