Apple’s rumored foldable iPad could take major step towards hiding the screen island

Rumors about a foldable all-screen Apple device have been circling for a while — some call it a MacBook and others call it an iPad. Today, 9To5Mac spotted a leak from Digital chat station on Weibo claiming there’s a prototype of the mysterious foldable with Face ID tech hiding beneath the screen.

Translations of the leak, originally posted in Chinese, mention a “metal super-structured lens” with integrated “Face ID Rx and Tx” to do under-screen 3D face recognition. Apple patents for this tech already exist and we all understand why the company would be chasing it — to finally get rid of the infamous notch or “dynamic island” that plagues current iPhone, MacBook, and iPad models.

The notch currently exists because it’s difficult for the infrared used in Face ID to travel through a display and difficult to achieve quality results from a camera when the display is blocking the lens. According to one of the Apple patents on this subject, visible light transmission through displays can be less than 20%. If Apple can figure out how to let more light in when needed, sensors like cameras, ambient light sensors, and proximity sensors could work while hidden under the display. It’s unclear, however, how many of the sensors currently in the Dynamic Island are hidden under the screen in this new prototype.

Everyone is waiting with bated breath for the end of the dreaded notch, even though we have learned to live with it for now. Every time a new iPhone comes, someone somewhere hedges their bets on this being the one to go notchless — but the reality is that it’s a really hard thing to pull off. However, if this leak proves accurate, this tech could be a major step towards the eventual end of the Dynamic Island and in the immediate future, our notches could get significantly smaller.