The Pixel 9 Pro should support always-on display wallpapers

Google’s Pixel 9 Pro is one of them in every way best android phones outside. AP Phones editor Will gave a glowing review, and it’s consistent with my experience so far: If you ignore the silly AI features (which isn’t that hard), the 9 Pro’s great hardware and sophisticated software make it work an easy choice for Google’s best phone yet. However, it’s missing a very special feature that competing options from Samsung and Apple offer: always-on display wallpapers. The hardware is there, all that’s missing is the software.

The Pixel 9 Pro’s LTPO display could do more

Almost every smartphone with an OLED screen has an Always-On Display option to continuously display information such as notifications, the time and local weather while you are not actively using the phone. In recent years, some phones have taken things a step further with more advanced displays. On newer iPhone Pro models and the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, you can set your Always-On Display to show a dimmed version of your wallpaper.

In mine Test report for the Samsung Galaxy S24+I admit that I didn’t particularly like the feature at first. It doesn’t have a huge impact on battery life, but all the wallpapers I tried to use on my S24+’s home screen seemed distracting on the always-on display. However, the feature specifically uses your lock screen wallpaper. So getting a more subtle AOD wallpaper is as easy as choosing a subtle lock screen wallpaper. Once it worked out, I had fun finding simpler images and graphics and adding them to my AOD.

The option to set AOD wallpapers is the definition of a nice-to-have feature – it shouldn’t make anyone’s decision to purchase a phone. But it’s a fun little extra for people who want it, and for anyone who doesn’t, it’s easy to leave it turned off. If a phone’s hardware supports putting a wallpaper on the always-on display, I don’t see any downside to providing this option in the phone’s software.

The Pixel 9 Pro has the right hardware. OLED screens enable standard always-on display functionality – when your phone is locked and only shows a clock and a few icons, all the pixels that make up the blank spaces are turned off and don’t use any power. However, for most OLED displays, displaying a static image across a large portion of the screen would drain more battery than a persistent wallpaper is worth.

A growing number of premium phones are equipped with LTPO OLED displays (Google calls it Take the). Great Actua ad), which can dynamically adjust their refresh rate down to 1 Hz, or one refresh rate per second. In practice, displays do not always utilize the full refresh rate range. But a lower refresh rate uses significantly less power than the more common 60Hz minimum of non-LTPO screens in phones like the standard Pixel 9. Optional AOD wallpapers on the Pixel 9 Pro wouldn’t have a significant impact on battery life – found I The S24+ easily lasted longer than a full day, even with an AOD wallpaper displayed continuously.

The biggest advantage of LTPO panels is that they save battery in normal use compared to the more standard LTPS panels. Refreshing the screen less often is less stressful, which is why your phone’s battery saver mode limits the refresh rate of the display. But the option to display wallpapers on the always-on display would be a nice added benefit to further differentiate Google’s Pixel phones – the standard Pixel 9 doesn’t have an LTPO panel, so AOD wallpapers would be a Pro exclusive -Function.

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It’s not too late for AOD wallpapers on the Pixel 9 Pro

The Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and last year’s Pixel 8 Pro all have the right display hardware to support displaying wallpapers on the always-on display, but the option isn’t present in the software. Samsung’s implementation of AOD wallpaper is great, but it’s a custom One UI feature that’s not part of Android itself. As LTPO screens become more common, it only makes sense to integrate AOD wallpaper functionality directly into AOSP and add it to compatible Pixel phones in a feature drop.

Personalization has always been one of Android’s strengths, and LTPO screens provide a new canvas for that personalization. Android 16 will be here before you know it – I haven’t heard of any AOD changes (yet), but maybe we’ll get lucky.

Google Pixel 9 Pro

The Pixel 9 Pro has long been my favorite phone, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have little complaints about it. Case in point: The Galaxy S24 and iPhone 16 Pro let you put a wallpaper on your always-on display, but the Pixel 9 Pro doesn’t.