Always-on display may be coming to OnePlus phones

OnePlus users may finally get a feature they’ve been waiting for. The company posted a tweet on its official account, stating that an always-on display feature is on its roadmap. It will let users glance over notifications without the need to touch their phones, so it will be a welcome addition, especially when OnePlus ditched the notification LED option a long time ago.

 

The top IDEA is Always-On Display. We hear you, and our OS Product team has replied: it's on our roadmap.

— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 27, 2020

 
OnePlus has been reluctant to add the functionality to its models even after it shifted to the modern and energy-friendly OLED technology. Unlike LCD, which uses a backlight to illuminate pixels even when they show black images, OLED can switch on and off individual pixels, thus these pixels consume no power at all. This makes it easier and well justified to use the always-on display feature on an OLED screen.

On the other hand, OnePlus has conducted tests and concluded that adding an always-on display feature will result in one to two hours of battery life lost. In the past, the company wasn’t ready to make such a sacrifice, but now, things are about to change. The OxygenOS custom Android interface OnePlus uses tried to fill the gap with features like Ambient Display and Horizon Light, but some users apparently never felt satisfied and took things to OnePlus’ Ideas portal. As expected, the feature quickly became the top idea on the portal, and OnePlus had to react.

It’s still not clear if the feature will make it in the next OxygenOS release. Implementing this functionality couldn’t be that hard but the OnePlus team has to make sure it won’t lead to compromises in battery life and the overall experience for the users.