iPhone 18 Pro series screen exposure: return to single hole

Blogger Digital Chat Station revealed that the iPhone 18 Pro series has two new screens, one is a 6.27-inch 1.5K LTPO and the other is a 6.86-inch 1.5K LTPO. Both screens are single-hole screen design and equipped with under-screen Face ID technology. This is the first single-hole screen mobile phone in Apple’s history.

Since the launch of the iPhone 14 Pro series, the iPhone has officially entered the pill-screen era, and some netizens call it the “exclamation mark screen.”

There is no shortage of complaints about the pill-shaped screen on social platforms, with the main reason being that it is “unsightly”. As a result, Apple designed the “Smart Island”, which covers the original exclamation mark with a completely black background. The UI design of Smart Island has also been imitated by Android manufacturers.

However, the Smart Island is a compromise solution made by Apple to “cover blemishes”. The best solution is still to place the Face ID component under the screen. After several years of technological iteration, Apple will mass-produce this solution for commercial use on the iPhone 18 Pro series.

It is reported that the primary problem that under-screen Face ID solves is to improve the transmittance of infrared light. Although infrared light can pass through the display, its transmittance is extremely poor. If the component is forcibly placed under the panel, the face recognition process will be much slower and the security and reliability will become worse.

A previously exposed patent showed that Apple deleted some screen sub-pixels to allow infrared light to pass through the cover to achieve the purpose of under-screen facial recognition.

If this solution is successfully commercialized, the iPhone 18 Pro series will be the most changed mobile phone in Apple’s history, and the pill-shaped screen will be eliminated.