Internet Reacts to iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island: 'One of Apple's Best Designs'

[AlexMac89]

You don’t have to like it.
Now that there are android strong enough to emulate iOS over top of an android phone I think this whole argument is mute.

Of all of your messages, this is the one that made me laugh the most and got me to post. The BEST and highest end android flagships still can’t touch the performance of 3yo iPhones. So I’m not sure what you are “emulating”, but even if you are able to get the OS running, you will never being getting the premium iPhone experience trying to emulate it, even on a $1500+ android.

Sounds like a waste of time, money, and is just an exercise in frustration.

 

[Zaft]

They better praise it or Apple won’t invite them again.

 

[lazyrighteye]

To take something - the notch - that both Apple tried to hide and users tried not see, and completely flip it and now ask users to engage with it is pretty badass. It's one of those scenarios where leaning into a perceived weakness can yield a strength.

Notch was one of those things that no one really wanted, but most were able to unsee pretty quickly. I never thought about it much - except everyday when someone in these forums would gripe about it. but in my day-to-day, it wasn't something I ever through about. Dynamic Island (a name I can't quite take seriously yet, but can see the thinking behind it) is such a smart way to make actual use of the fact that a cutout is needed for the cameras and sensors. Leveraging the black space of the cutout and expanding it via software is just next level thinking. Dye, and team, should be proud of this innovation. I imagine it must have been pretty exciting as the concept first started getting discussed. Then to see it move on to conceptual development, to implementation, to an actual shipping feature must have been a rewarding journey (more or less). Would love to learn more about that process and how it unfolded. This feature, alone, is reason enough to upgrade. The camera improvements are just icing on the cake.

 

[Return Zero]

Truly it's mind boggling to read comments from people who actually think they could have designed this phone better than Apple. Go do it! Start your own damn company, or sell your divinely inspired design to a company that can manufacture it. In the meantime, try giving me one alternative design that doesn't make a huge compromise in some way. Apple has good reasons not to compromise on Face ID, camera quality, camera position, and screen symmetry. They have had large market study groups and engineering groups work on solving these issues, over the course of many years. This is the result, and it will be a smash hit.

 

[waloshin]

Cherry picked articles from fanboy like media. Of course they owe it!

 

[Dafaso]

They polished a turd and called it an island.

 

[antnythr]

So two things:

1. I'm curious to know how it works in landscape. I haven't seen anyone demonstrate it or talk about it. Maybe they're all under NDA until the 16th? It could work if everything were simply rotated 90 degrees so it was a vertical island?

2. As I look at the pop-outs from the dynamic island... they said they are interactive. That sounds like interactive widgets. Maybe that's coming in iOS 17?

 

[mikethemartian]

It's amazing how people are cheering Apple making the notch bigger and moving it into the display area.

The only thing revolutionary about the dynamic island is Apple's talent in selling it. It proves the reality distortion field is still alive and well I suppose.

I don’t really get it. You could still have this feature without the two cut outs being placed lower down on the screen.

 

[spinedoc77]

I got to say i prefer the look of the notch compared to this. Can’t even bring myself to say the name of it. Absolute madness.

I also prefer the notch, it was a lot less obtrusive as it just blended into the top of the phone. I don't understand the aesthetics of the island, it's very distracting in that it has usable screen over it and with the island notification crap that will just call more attention to it. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but for me it's one of the fugliest phone designs I've ever laid eyes on.

 

[spinedoc77]

Of all of your messages, this is the one that made me laugh the most and got me to post. The BEST and highest end android flagships still can’t touch the performance of 3yo iPhones. So I’m not sure what you are “emulating”, but even if you are able to get the OS running, you will never being getting the premium iPhone experience trying to emulate it, even on a $1500+ android.

Sounds like a waste of time, money, and is just an exercise in frustration.

What "performance" are you referring to? Speed of opening apps? Camera performance? Game performance?

 

[zetokore]

I'd take a phone that's exactly 2 cm taller with the lens above the screen vs a notch/island/whatever within my viewing area. Don't shower Apple with praise because they're working around their single-minded goal of making their products smaller at any cost.

 

[Toratek]

I was surprised so many commenters on Ars Technica disliked this. This is something I expect will rush to copy. It just looks amazing how they embraced this dead space.

I'm not. Ars is a hotbed of anti-Apple commenters and writers (Cunningham in particular). Just look at their outright false story on the M2 MBA (based on YouTube shills)- then ignoring their mistake saying there is "no thermal management system" until they very quietly walked back their comments.

 

[makingmark]

It's neat, but neat does not make an upgrade for me.

As for the name - I didn't coin it, but I will be calling it the Dancing Hole. 😎

 

[AppleDumplings]

I guarantee they’re working on moving all of this under the display but I’d suspect they want to wait till it’s perfect. The screens I’ve seen with a camera underneath usually have fewer pixels in that area resulting in a dim spot when viewed from certain angles. Also, the image quality of said camera is compromised because the light has to pass through the display to reach the sensor. I think this is pretty cool till we reach that point.

 

[AirunJae]

This is what happens when there is no alternative. You have to like whatever is handed to you. Plus you don't want to get beaten up by saying anything negative, especially if you're a professional reviewer receiving free eval units.

There are plenty of good options that run Android out there, no one is forcing people to like the iPhone. If one doesn't like the look of an iPhone, they aren't actually imprisoned inside the walled garden. Go, be free, get a Pixel or a Flip/Fold or something from OnePlus.

 

[Ploki]

I'm not sure about the design choice that moves it further down the screen tho, doesn't that take away MORE screen real-estate, not less?
Could've made a dynamic peninsula without wasted space above the notch.

 

[alexhardaker]

It’s a cliché, but Jobs’ would never have allowed the dynamic island.

Jobs would’ve released a phone with a camera under the screen in 2017.

 

[AppleDumplings]

Yesterday afternoon, after the Apple Event, CARROT Weather asked me if I wanted to get the weather for Dynamic Island.

Love that app. 😁

 

[Toratek]

It’s a cliché, but Jobs’ would never have allowed the dynamic island.

Must be one helluva Ouija board you have there.

 

[ghanwani]

There are plenty of good options that run Android out there, no one is forcing people to like the iPhone. If one doesn't like the look of an iPhone, they aren't actually imprisoned inside the walled garden. Go, be free, get a Pixel or a Flip/Fold or something from OnePlus.

Android itself is the problem. When you have a choice between two undesirables, you pick the one that is less undesirable. That doesn't make it praiseworthy.

 

[definitive]

I stopped believing in "Internet reacts" headlines when I learned that companies employ online shills to sway public opinion. Stuff like this means absolutely nothing. It's evident in product reviews, movie reviews, and more. Today's "professional critics" are nothing more than paid corporate mouthpieces.

 

[Return Zero]

I don’t really get it. You could still have this feature without the two cut outs being placed lower down on the screen.

It would have looked super uneven. Notice how the curving of the screen corners line up precisely with the bottom of the island. This could be considered a "bonus area", just like on the new MBPs. Also, having the "wasted" screen makes the black notifications visually pop more, and allows them to maintain a consistent border around full-width notifications (if they went all the way to the edge on three sides, it would look quite strange).

 

[coffeephile]

I stopped believing in "Internet reacts" headlines when I learned that companies employ online shills to sway public opinion. Stuff like this means absolutely nothing. It's evident in product reviews, movie reviews, and more. Today's "professional critics" are nothing more than paid corporate mouthpieces.

Absolutely, people have no idea what you can buy on internet as a company if you know where to look for it. I have worked for 3 big time construction companies, every one of them was buying internet positive reviews like there is no tomorrow.

 

[ghostface147]

I think it's pretty a cool looking feature.

 

[AirunJae]

Android itself is the problem. When you have a choice between two undesirables, you pick the one that is less undesirable. That doesn't make it praiseworthy.

That's fair. I don't think Android in and of itself is that bad, but can certainly understand there are reasons why one wouldn't want an Android device. That said I like the look of the Island, but that's just me.