© Provided by CNET . The always-on display is one of the main features of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. AppleThe iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max have some notable software changes, like Dynamic Island which shows system alerts and the very predictable Always On Display. This last feature is not entirely new. For years, Android devices have displayed important information when the screen is off. What you see is a black screen with the time, date, and sometimes notification icons. But the iPhone version has Apple's personal touch.
Instead of a black screen, the 14 Pro's always-on display shows the time and date (with a widget) on a dark version of the background image. I've been using my iPhone 14 Pro for about three months now and it took me about half as long to get used to the always-on display because it felt like my phone was unlocked. While Apple deserves credit for finding a way to make the always-on display nearly identical to a regular lock screen, there's a catch. Some of us want a more low-key, understated always-on display.
Luckily for us, iOS 16.2 is the answer. The beta of iOS 16.2, Apple's next iPhone software update, now has controls to turn off background playback when always-on display is on. This means you can finally have a solid black wallpaper for your iPhone's always-on screen without changing your lock screen image.
If you want to give it a try, open Settings , tap Display & brightness , then select Always-on display . From there you will see an option to display banners or notifications. Disabling Show Wallpaper results in an always-on black screen.
In our testing, using the iPhone 14 Pro's always-on screen didn't reduce battery life. But some people have the opposite experience. For those who have been experiencing battery life issues, we hope changing the lock screen to a solid black wallpaper will resolve the issue. I should also add that overall our tests found the iPhone 14 series to have shorter battery life than the iPhone 13 series.
The iOS 16.2 update is currently in beta, with the final version likely to be available in December, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his newsletter. If you want to try the public beta, read our iOS 16.2 beta guide to walk you through the process.
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