Apple’s design might be the reason iPhones won’t get an important display upgrade for years

Apple is famous for having some of the best displays on the smartphone market, with one caveat. While the iPhone 17 Pro can reach a respectable maximum brightness, sustaining it for a long time is challenging. A new leak suggests that part of the issue could be related to the design, not the display itself.

iPhone 18 Pro will miss out on a big display upgrade, partially because of its design

Apple doesn’t plan to introduce any of the upgrades that could allow the iPhone 18 Pro to have better peak brightness, according to Weibo tipster Instant Digital. The leaker says that Apple’s current thermal throttling strategy leaves using a dual-layer OLED display as the only option for significant improvements.

However, the company won’t change the thermal design of the iPhone 18 Pro, nor is it planning to use a dual-OLED display on it. Answering a question about when the dual-layer OLED display may come to the iPhone, the leaker said (source in Chinese) that “the iPhone 18 Pro definitely won’t have it.”

Still using a new technology

While not focusing on the brightness, Apple is still planning to upgrade the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max displays. The company is expected to switch to LTPO+ technology, which is an upgrade to the LTPO panels it has used since the iPhone 13 Pro.

The new technology will reportedly force Apple to work only with Samsung Display and LG Display for its new flagship phones. Recent reports claimed that the Chinese company BOE had quality and yield issues with the production of the technology, which left it out of the game.

Nice upgrades

Using the new technology won’t make the displays brighter, nor will it help the iPhone 18 Pro avoid the thermal throttling that limits how long peak brightness can be sustained. However, the LTPO+ panels should lead to battery efficiency improvements, though it’s unclear how significant those will be.

Sign of a more annoying issue

Probably everyone with an iPhone has had its display going dim in the worst possible moment, especially in hot weather. As annoying as that is, it’s just a signal for the generally inferior thermal control of Apple’s phones. I’d love to have it improved for very different reasons, but I won’t complain if the sustained peak brightness times also go up.

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