Apple Apparently Still Undecided on iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island

[MacRumors]

Apple is weighing two options for the iPhone 18 Pro's Dynamic Island, and a final decision has yet to be made, according to the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.

In a new post today, the leaker says that current supply chain feedback points to an A/B scenario: one option retains the existing screen mold from the iPhone 17 Pro, while the other introduces a significantly smaller "Mini Dynamic Island" enabled by moving the Face ID receiver and transmitter components beneath the display.

Current feedback from the supply chain suggests an A/B testing scenario: one option retains the existing screen mold, while the other features a 'Mini Dynamic Island' with the Face ID receiver/transmitter (RX) components positioned beneath the display. If they opt for the latter, it feels like sales figures will once again be a non-issue.

The update is a slight shift from the leaker's previous position. Earlier this year, Digital Chat Station claimed Apple was leaning toward reusing last year's design, which would have left the Dynamic Island largely unchanged.

The report was a dissenting voice against a body of reporting, including from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, DSCC's Ross Young, and multiple other Weibo leakers, suggesting the iPhone 18 Pro would feature a Dynamic Island roughly 35% smaller than on the iPhone 17 Pro.


In a follow-up post, the leaker also addressed the iPhone 18 Pro's rear design. He said that the rectangular plateau design introduced with the iPhone 17 Pro will carry over unchanged, but the back will see "minor adjustments to the body materials and design details.” This is likely a reference to previously rumored changes aimed at achieving a more uniform look between the aluminum unibody frame and glass cutout for wireless charging.

The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are expected to be announced this fall alongside Apple's first foldable iPhone.

Article Link: Apple Apparently Still Undecided on iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island

 

[MacUserFella]

Doesn’t Apple plan iPhones years in advance? Surely it doesn’t take THAT long to decide on something so simple

 

[Kylo83]

the only change for the new 18 pro will be that so what else will the phone have? why is it 4 years later and they still cant get rid of the huge cut out

 

[Kylo83]

I think they can but they know the 20th one isnt that exciting so they will save the hype for that phone and say look wow we made it slightly smaller

 

[upandown]

Yeah, this article is BS. There’s no way they don’t have it figured out yet. That’s not how it works.

 

[Zenman12]

Yeah. That’s bs. They’ve decided. They have to be too close to make an alteration. These phones are designed year(s) in advance. All the manufacturing/tooling/sourcing has to be done at this point for the displays. The launch is later this year. Whatever decision they’ve made most likely is set in stone for displays and components. They’re fine-tuning color and ironing out production kinks, etc.

These rumors where they’re thinking making substantial changes late, I think can be thrown out.

And yes, I think the smaller DI is coming.

 

[I/0]

Be serious guys, you know there’s no way Apple is “undecided” on the design of their flagship less than 6 months from now, so why posting this BS rumor?

Lately there’s no criteria for posting these so-called rumors, anyone could speculate their wildest guess and you’d post it as a rumor.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Yeah, this article is BS. There’s no way they don’t have it figured out yet. That’s not how it works.

Yeah they need to have a few million phones ready in 5 months. I doubt they’re still scratching their heads over design choices.

 

[munpip214]

Pre-production (basically finalized though) models are sent to the FCC 6 months in advance for testing. In addition, the design of the packaging that holds the chips would be heavily dependent on any physical component and would not be flexible. These would be finalized more or less for their first chips out of fab, probably a year ago. Also, packaging costs are extremely expensive right now and they aren’t going to going back and forth at this point. This article might make most sense for an iPhone 19, but not 18

 

[benface]

MacRumors posts a rumor. Users are enraged.

 

[N47H]

Given when you buy a launch day phone you can see the manufacture date as July of that same year, I’m gonna call bull on them still being undecided on any major design or component choices with 3 months to go before the phones start coming off the production line.

 

[d-klumpp]

Am I alone in using and liking the DI functionality? If it gets too small, its function as a convenient and quick access point will be compromised and will need to be provided elsewhere on the display -- that may improve aesthetics but is not a functional improvement.

 

[JPack]

Doesn’t Apple plan iPhones years in advance? Surely it doesn’t take THAT long to decide on something so simple

It would be if it were assembled in the U.S. Thankfully, it's not.

The classic story of Steve Jobs' last minute decision to change from plastic to glass on the original iPhone already tells you it's not "years" to make a change. Back then, it was 6 months.

That story was nearly 20 years ago. The supply chain is even more optimized and responsive to changes today.

 

[winxmac]

I'm pretty sure the rumor is referring to the 20th anniversary iPhone design.

 

[JPack]

Pre-production (basically finalized though) models are sent to the FCC 6 months in advance for testing. In addition, the design of the packaging that holds the chips would be heavily dependent on any physical component and would not be flexible. These would be finalized more or less for their first chips out of fab, probably a year ago. Also, packaging costs are extremely expensive right now and they aren’t going to going back and forth at this point. This article might make most sense for an iPhone 19, but not 18

FCC testing means nothing. The FCC documents for MacBook Neo showed it had a MagSafe port, but the final product doesn't. What matters is whether the radio stuff is different.

 

[N47H]

Am I alone in using and liking the DI functionality? If it gets too small, its function as a convenient and quick access point will be compromised and will need to be provided elsewhere on the display -- that may improve aesthetics but is not a functional improvement.

The size of the physical cut out makes no difference, the DI interface is entirely software based, you could have no cutout there and it still exist. It’s a marketing gimmick that many fell for to help sell and disguise a rather ugly and awkward cut out in the screen. They’ve made people believe it needs to exist for the functionality to work.

 

[satchmo]

Be serious guys, you know there’s no way Apple is “undecided” on the design of their flagship less than 6 months from now, so why posting this BS rumor?

Lately there’s no criteria for posting these so-called rumors, anyone could speculate their wildest guess and you’d post it as a rumor.

Yeah there was a time when some vetting was done. But now it's clicks for ad revenue (although the ads are not in your face as much as other rumour sites).

I wonder if I posted a rumour as some influencer or supply chain analyst from China, if it would get picked up. 😛

 

[ProbablyDylan]

It's always interesting to see the indecision that comes with scale.

 

[OliOliOliOli]

Seriously… who care about it?

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Yeah, this article is BS. There’s no way they don’t have it figured out yet. That’s not how it works.

Completely agree.
Same with the article yesterday that was saying that the folding iPhone would be delayed into next year because “Apple doesn’t plan on deciding on a hinge material until August”, which is… just obviously ridiculous. They likely decided on the material for the hinge years ago at this point.
Maybe they are experimenting with designs for version 2, but not a chance that version one isn’t pretty set in stone by now.
Same with the 18 Pro.

 

[JPack]

Given when you buy a launch day phone you can see the manufacture date as July of that same year, I’m gonna call bull on them still being undecided on any major design or component choices with 3 months to go before the phones start coming off the production line.

That manufacturing date in iOS represents the battery pack, not the iPhone itself. Those battery packs always have earlier dates because they're unprotected cells which have to be shipped by ground.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The classic story of Steve Jobs' last minute decision to change from plastic to glass on the original iPhone already tells you it's not "years" to make a change. Back then, it was 6 months.

This is an absolutely nonsense comparison, Apple is not as flexible as they were in 2007.
Making a change to a phone that’s going to ship about 200,000 units on launch day is a totally different ball game than the “we need 90 million for Q4 alone” scenario Apple finds itself in today.

 

[goonie4life9]

Yeah, this article is BS. There’s no way they don’t have it figured out yet. That’s not how it works.

Bingo! Apple locks-in devices years in advance. This is either speculation or more of Apple’s tutti-fruitti, phoney-baloney, plastic banana, good time, rock-n-roll PR to push the astroturf narrative that Apple is so bleeding edge they are making decisions literally up to shipping devices.

 

[JPack]

This is an absolutely nonsense comparison, Apple is not as flexible as they were in 2007.
Making a change to a phone that’s going to ship about 200,000 units on launch day is a totally different ball game than the “we need 90 million for Q4 alone” scenario Apple finds itself in today.

All I can say is, it's clear most posters here have no idea what "China speed" is.

Apple suppliers are even more flexible today. Nobody back in 2007 imagined iPhone would be successful. Few suppliers thought iPhone would be successful. Corning didn't even make Gorilla Glass until Steve Jobs asked for the change to glass. It took 6 month back then.

Today, Apple has Plan A/B/C/D for all devices, especially iPhone. They have the money to do parallel development. It's $200 billion annual income for Apple.

 

[bluecoast]

They’re probably stuck on choosing the colours too.

/s