Apple's Hidden Face ID is coming, but you'll need to wait for the iPhone 17 Pro

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published 4 April 2023

As we reported a few weeks ago, some publications are claiming that the iPhone 16 Pro will be getting under-display Face ID in 2024. Display analyst Ross Young suggested that that was overly optimistic, and he's just published a roadmap on Twitter that indicates that while the feature is indeed coming, you'll need to wait for the iPhone 17 Pro. That's expected in late 2025.

It's not the only improvement Young says is coming. He also predicts that Apple will expand its 120Hz ProMotion displays, which are currently exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max, bringing it to every iPhone from late 2025 onwards.

What does the iPhone 17 roadmap show?

According to Young's roadmap, there are two different lanes here: one for the Pro models and one for the standard models.

For the Pros, he predicts that the iPhone Pro will keep its current pill-shaped cutout through the iPhone 16 Pro, moving to a punch hole design with under-panel Face ID in 2025 with the iPhone 17 Pro. That'll stay for two generations before being replaced with an under panel camera, removing the need for a cutout altogether, in the 2027 iPhone 19.

As for the standard models, they'll get the pill-shaped cutout this year with the iPhone 15 and that'll stay for four generations through the 2026 iPhone 18, although the display tech will change from the current LTPS to LTPO in the 2025 iPhone 17. The under-panel Face ID and punch-hole cutout will move from the Pro and Pro Max to the iPhone 19 in 2027.

These are predictions, not definite plans, so it's possible that Apple might – oh yes – Think Different about at least some of these future phones. But if Young's data is correct, it does suggest that the next big "tick" in the iPhone's tick/tock upgrade cycle will be in 2024 for the standard iPhone and 2025 for the Pros.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).