Apple is working on the pill-shaped screen! iPhone 18 Pro is reportedly upgraded to a single-hole screen

In April 2023, display industry analyst Ross Young shared a roadmap showing that the iPhone 17 Pro models will be equipped with under-screen Face ID.

In May 2024, Ross Young said that due to technical reasons, the launch of iPhone devices equipped with under-screen Face ID will be postponed to 2026. According to this time point, iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro will be the first to launch under-screen Face ID.

Today, Apple reporter Mark Gurman gave a similar timeline, saying that by 2026 or 2027, the size of the Smart Island on the Pro models will shrink because Apple plans to move more components under the screen.

This means that Apple will bring an under-screen Face ID solution to the iPhone 18 Pro series at the earliest. At that time, the iPhone 18 Pro series models will only retain a front camera, similar to the single-hole design of Android phones such as Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25.

Patents related to under-screen Face ID have been exposed many times before. For Apple, if it wants to realize under-screen 3D face recognition, the first thing to solve is to increase the transmittance of infrared light. Although infrared light can pass through the display, its transmittance is extremely poor. If it is forcibly placed under the panel, the face recognition process will be much slower and the security will become worse.

The latest patent shows that Apple achieves the purpose of under-screen 3D face recognition by deleting some sub-pixels to allow infrared light to pass through the cover. These missing sub-pixels will not be perceived by the user’s naked eye, and Apple will ensure the consistency of the display effect through optimization.