With iPhone 14 Pro, now we are finally You have a feature that’s been on Android for years: an always-on display, or AOD. You can’t believe how excited I am for this small and powerful feature. It’s one I constantly miss on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, and it’s one I love when I look at the Pixel 6 Pro on my desk.
But as thrilled as the iPhone 14 Pro is rocking AOD, I’m less enthusiastic about the implementation. From my point of view, having seen hardly more than what Apple showed at an Apple event, the new AOD looks very sophisticated. It’s as if Apple over-designed a solution to a problem, which is not uncommon.
I want to preface this by saying that I am a simple person, although I am not a simple person. I like simple things. I keep my technology to a minimum, with as few applications or programs as needed, less code, plain desktops, clean file systems – you get the idea. So understand that before we go ahead.
iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display: welcome but too complicated
Like I said, I’m excited about the always-on display when I put my hands on the purple iPhone 14 Pro. It’s a feature I talked about a lot last year before the iPhone 13 launch, and one that I kept mentioning before this year’s announcement. I love getting AOD on the best Android phones, and I’m glad the iPhone finally has one.
But given what Apple revealed, as well as bits and pieces of people on the ground at the event, I was left unsatisfied. What I’ve seen seems like a lot of good stuff. Let me explain.
The iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display is basically a dimmed version of the lock screen, complete with all the widgets and clock typefaces. That’s great, but the AOD is supposed to (in my humble opinion) provide background information at a glance. Time, notifications, possibly weather, calendar events, and battery percentage. These are the basics I want to see when I look at the Pixel 6 Pro on my desk, and that’s what the phone offers in a simple monochrome format.
Given what Apple has revealed, I am not satisfied. Seems like a lot of good stuff. It looks very complicated.
Other Android phones offer a bit more in the AOD area, such as OnePlus allowing you to change the typeface of the clock or what would appear on the OnePlus 10 Pro’s AOD. But the basic premise remains the same: simplicity. It looks like Apple has gone too far, cluttering AOD. At least from what I’ve seen.
I don’t mind the new iOS 16 lock screen features — I absolutely love them, actually — but that doesn’t mean I want a dulled version of the lock screen like AOD. I have the same issue with my AOD on my Apple Watch 7. It’s a dimmer and colored version of my watch screen, not a basic watch. Instead, I have to set a base clock wallpaper to get the AOD I want.
It looks like I’ll need to do the same with the iPhone 14 Pro, as the phone will spend more time with the screen off than with the screen locked.
iPhone 14 Pro always-on display: Outlook
When I look at the AOD photos of the iPhone 14 Pro, I’m ambivalent, ripped off if you will. It’s a feature I’ve wanted since I switched to the iPhone early last year, but it doesn’t look what I expected. Is this just the loud cries of a wicked man who is resistant to change? You can make this argument.
I’ll wait to form my full opinion until after spending some time with the iPhone 14 Pro. In theory often things work differently in practice, so I might like Apple’s implementation of an always-on display. Or my opinion could be getting sour.
I plan to keep an open mind about it, but for now, I think Apple has overcomplicated the issue.
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