Let me confess something upfront. I stared at my iPhone’s notch this morning. Really stared. The black pill shaped island that once felt futuristic now seems like a fossil. A reminder that our screens are still interrupted by the machinery of recognition. So when whispers surface about Apple finally burying Face ID under the display, it triggers that familiar tech euphoria. Progress! Refinement! But then the skeptic in me wakes up.

Recent leaks suggest next year’s iPhone 18 models, particularly the Pro variants, will use what’s being dramatically called micro transparent glass panels to hide Face ID sensors beneath the screen. This isn’t magic, though the marketing will likely suggest otherwise. Think of it as engineering origami. Tiny, precision cut areas of the display become see through portals for infrared cameras and dot projectors to peek through. The Dynamic Island shrinks, maybe vanishes entirely. Your screen becomes seamless glass.

On paper, this solves an aesthetic problem nobody truly complained about after the first week of owning a notched iPhone. We adapted. The Island became useful. Yet here we are, chasing minimalism because we can, not necessarily because we should. The implications ripple far beyond vanity.

The Ghost in the Machine Problem

Buried tech is temperamental tech. Current Face ID already stumbles in harsh sunlight or with certain sunglasses. What happens when its sensors stare through another layer of material? Apple engineers are brilliant, no doubt. But physics remains stubborn. Light diffusion. Potential calibration drift. Micro scratches accumulating over those transparent panels. Will Face ID become less reliable precisely when we expect it to feel more magical?

History offers warnings. Touch ID under power buttons on iPads proved finicky compared to the original home button placement. First generation under screen fingerprint scanners on Android phones? Often slow, inconsistent. We accept trade offs for novelty, but authentication isn’t where I want compromise. Unlocking my phone isn’t a party trick. It’s the gateway to my finances, health data, messages.

The Two Tiered Future of Apple Products

Here’s where the leak gets telling. Sources suggest under screen Face ID might debut only on iPhone 18 Pro models and a rumored foldable device. Standard iPhones could lag behind, retaining the current design. If true, this continues Apple’s quiet stratification. Pro doesn’t mean better cameras and screens anymore. It increasingly means access to fundamental interactions.

Imagine explaining to a budget iPhone buyer that their Face ID is literally superficial, while the premium model hides its tech beneath the surface. The psychological effect matters. You aren’t just paying for titanium edges or an extra lens. You’re purchasing invisibility, that coveted illusion of effortlessness. This widens the experiential gap between Apple’s tiers subtly but significantly. The standard iPhone feels like last year’s tech, intentionally.

When Invisible Tech Costs Visible Dollars

Let’s talk repair nightmares. Cracked screens already drain wallets. Now imagine microscopic glass components fused beneath the display. Current third party repair shops struggle with TrueDepth camera calibrations after screen swaps. Under display sensors could make independent repairs impossible if calibration requires proprietary Apple tools. Right to repair advocates should dread this. It’s enclosure 3.0, locking away not just software but the physical means of maintenance.

And cost. Pushing boundaries requires expensive materials. Micro transparent panels aren’t bulk commodity glass. If only Pros get this treatment, the base iPhone 18 might stick with the old notch purely to hit a price point. Inflation adjusted, iPhones creep toward luxury goods while mid range Android devices offer 90% of the experience at half the cost. Apple bets we’ll pay for polish, but how thin can that justification stretch?

The Disappearing Act We Actually Need

Here’s my frustration. While Apple obsesses over hiding the notch, other smartphone problems fester. Battery life improvements crawl at a snail’s pace. Charging speeds lag behind Android rivals. Software updates sometimes introduce more bugs than features. These aren’t sexy engineering challenges, but they impact daily happiness far more than whether my lock screen has a small black area or not.

Under screen tech feels like solving the wrong problem brilliantly. It reminds me of car manufacturers adding ambient lighting before fixing infotainment systems that freeze. A distraction, however beautiful.

Privacy’s New Hiding Place

Buried sensors raise another question. If Face ID components vanish from view, does their presence become easier to forget? The notch serves as a physical reminder that your face unlocks the phone. A subtle cue about biometric surveillance. Making the mechanism invisible risks making the privacy implications invisible too. Out of sight, out of mind isn’t ideal when dealing with facial recognition databases, even encrypted ones.

Apple deserves credit for on device processing, but as biometrics become more seamless, so does their ubiquity. Future iPhones could authenticate payments or app logins with a glance you don’t consciously approve. Convenience chips away at intentionality. The notch was a boundary marker. Its absence blurs lines.

The Foldable X Factor

Rumors link under display Face ID to Apple’s upcoming foldable iPhone. Let’s untangle this. Foldables require maximum screen real estate. Any notch or cutout becomes doubly annoying when unfolded into tablet size. So eliminating the notch makes practical sense for folding devices. But if Apple ties this innovation to the foldable, pricing could skyrocket. Samsung’s Fold series starts around $1,800. Apple’s version would likely exceed that, making under screen tech a feature reserved for the ultra wealthy.

That’s the hidden narrative. The most exciting hardware advancements don’t trickle down anymore. They launch at prices that ensure most users experience them through YouTube reviews, never their own hands. Remember when Retina displays or fingerprint sensors debuted across entire product lines? That egalitarian spark dims yearly.

Looking Back to See Forward

Smartphone design used to follow function. The original iPhone home button invited natural thumb presses. It was big, obvious, tactile. Then Touch ID embedded a sensor under that button. Still functional. Still present. Face ID replaced touch with glances. Now, the hardware facilitating those glances vanishes. Progress? Maybe. But also a removal of physical ceremony. Pressing a button to unlock felt deliberate. Looking at your phone happens constantly. Authentication becomes passive, ambient.

All technologies have philosophies baked in, whether intended or not. Invisible Face ID whispers that technology should never remind us of its mechanisms. It should read our desires before we articulate them. But friction serves purposes. It makes us pause. Confirm. Consider permissions. The more seamless our devices become, the more carefully we must guard against thoughtless engagement.

Predictions in Plain Sight

Here’s where this leads. If under display Face ID works, expect Apple to expand it across iPads, Macs, even wearables. Your desk lamp or car dashboard could someday authenticate you without visible sensors. The dream of ubiquitous computing inches closer. But challenges remain. Screen durability standards must rise to protect those micro panels. Repair costs will climb for devices dependent on unibody construction. And startups will rush to mimic the effect, often cutting corners that compromise security.

I also foresee regulatory attention. Governments already scrutinize facial recognition. Burying the sensors might spark fresh debate about covert biometric surveillance capabilities, even if Apple keeps processing local. Perception matters.

A Question of Values

Ultimately, this isn’t about sensors under glass. It’s about what we prioritize in our tools. Apple justifies premium pricing through exquisite craftsmanship. Under display Face ID fits that story. But when I tally genuine user requests, burying the notch ranks low. Longer battery life, repairable designs, aggressive spam filtering. These lack the glamour of invisible tech but transform daily experiences.

Maybe we’re all complicit. Tech media hypes visual innovation over invisible upgrades. Incremental battery gains don’t trend on Twitter. So we get what we applaud. Shiny perfect slabs with components hidden like disgraced machinery. I love beautiful gadgets. Yet I wonder what magnificent compromises lie clamshelled inside this pursuit of seamless glass.

The Bottom Line

The iPhone 18’s rumored design excites me as a tech enthusiast but worries me as a consumer advocate. Under screen Face ID opens fascinating engineering doors but also reinforces worrying trends toward disposable, unrepairable, stratified technology. Apple could mitigate these risks by ensuring reliability, supporting third party repairs, and bringing key features to non Pro models promptly. Without those actions, this becomes another step toward luxury tech that dazzles the eyes but leeches the wallet. And batteries remain dead by dinner time. Priorities.