In the future, OnePlus will offer its smartphones with an always-on display feature. Most companies decided to do so several years ago, but OnePlus avoided the capability due to concerns of screen burn-in and battery drainage. Now, it appears OnePlus knows just how important an always-on display feature is. OnePlus' community voted to request the feature, and it has since been added to an internal roadmap.

OnePlus left the details of its approach in the dark; however, all always-on display features focus on the same thing. It's a simple method to offer information at a glance without the user needing to constantly unlock their smartphone. Often an always-on display runs the date, time, weather, battery life, and app icons for incoming notifications. Between all the companies using an always-on display feature, there could be some minor tweaks including the ability to alter the clock or wallpaper design.

Certainly it helps that OnePlus designs its smartphones with OLED panels. LCD technology requires an entire display to turn on to operate, but OLED panels can activate only the pixels needed to show color. It reduces power consumption, and there are software-side optimizations to also ensure an always-on display feature draws as little energy as possible.

When OnePlus introduces its always-on display feature, Apple will find itself as one of the last remaining companies to neglect a similar solution. Instead, Apple continues forcing users to either catch their iPhone when a notification comes in and illuminates the display or just manually turn on the screen to check for any notifications. Since it does use OLED panels on top-tier models, an always-on display isn't a challenge for Apple's hardware. There's really nothing stopping the iPhone from gaining an always-on display feature now.

OnePlus didn't commit to an exact release date, but the always-on display feature might debut with its upcoming round of smartphones. Both the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro appeared in a major leak a few days ago. Also, rumors suggest the OnePlus 8 Lite exists and will join these high-end models with some watered-down specifications. So an announcement could happen soon, and then we'll know whether or not OnePlus' always-on display feature is finished. But, in the era of social distancing, expect OnePlus to announce the OnePlus 8 series online rather than at a standard launch event.

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