Apple will debut an under-display Face ID setup to debut in 2023, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims in a Wednesday report to clients, seen by Cult of Mac.
Kuo doesn’t elaborate on the feature but, provided he’s accurate, this could potentially mean the end of the “notch” which has been a part of the iPhone design dating back to 2017’s iPhone X.
Apple is expected to shrink the notch slightly this year, but is unlikely to ditch it altogether just yet. The notch is necessary because it contains the top speaker, camera, and Face ID tech. While all of these are big positives for the iPhone, the presence of the notch cuts into the edge-to-edge screen of the iPhone. (To be fair, while I was annoyed by its presence initially, it took only a day or two of using the iPhone to forget about this.)
If Apple does find a way of embedding the Face ID tech in the screen, it remains to be seen what Apple would do with the other front-facing components. However, the company has been actively investigating embedding biometric readers in screens for some time. Previous reports suggest Apple has been looking at doing this for its Touch ID fingerprint scanner since at least 2019. The technology might finally arrive with this year’s iPhone 13.
How bothered by the iPhone notch are you? Do any readers have ideas about how in-screen Face ID could work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
