So, here’s the scoop: when two rumors come together, you end up with this – apparently, Apple’s foldable iPad Pro is set to feature an under-display Face ID, according to leakster Digital Chat Station. We’ve been hearing about foldables and under-display hardware for years, so it was only a matter of time before they started to overlap.
To clarify, this is about the upcoming foldable iPad Pro, not the foldable iPhone that’s expected next year. This might not shift all the Face ID hardware since it’s a mix of an IR projector and an IR camera, but it will only affect the projector. We’ll get this done with a “meta-lens” (or maybe not, Google Translate might have let us down here).
This really reminds me of the initial ideas to reduce the size of the Dynamic Island on iPhones—first, the projector gets tucked under the display, and then a few generations later, the camera follows suit. So, this was meant to happen this year with the iPhone 17, but it looks like the latest info says that this upgrade needs a bit more time in the lab before it can actually happen.
According to reports, the foldable iPad Pro will feature an 18.8″ display, which is smaller than iMacs but more prominent than any MacBook (iMacs are presently only available in 24″ sizes, while 21.5″ variants were formerly available).
In any case, Apple has nearly entirely switched to Face ID. While some iPads (the Pros) utilize Face ID, others (the Vanilla, Air, and small) still use Touch ID. With the discontinuation of the SE and the adoption of Face ID in the 16e, iPhones no longer have fingerprint readers. It seems that Cupertino is not interested in implementing under-display Touch ID, even though Apple could have done so easily.
