iPhone 17 Pro Max Again Rumored to Feature Smaller Dynamic Island Due to Face ID Change

[j26]

Because they need to project infrared dots through the screen, then accurately read them with an IR camera that will likely not work under a screen.

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

 

[Marty80]

If history serves me right Apple in the past has reduced the notch on the iPhone 13 pro max, before ditching it in favour of the iPhone 14 Pro Max Dynamic Island.

Fast forward to today the iPhone 17 pro max is again rumoured to reduce the Dynamic Island, with Ross Young Claiming the iPhone 18 pro max in 2026 will get rid of the Face ID camera for a punch hole design.

I am on the fence about upgrading my 12 pro max to the 17 pro max or I might be forced to wait for the 18 pro max as I hate the Dynamic Island.

 

[B4U]

With property price increase, your money can only afford a smaller island. 🤣

 

[platinumaqua]

I really enjoy that it shows me that something is playing, what it is, and gives me a quick and easy way to control what’s playing.

Does that utility not count? Back in the day when something was playing on your iPhone, there would be a little “play” triangle in the status bar. That was nice.

Then that went away for many years, and there was no way of seeing whether or not audio was playing visually.

The Dynamic Island not only brought back the ability to see whether something was playing, but also gave you a way to interact with it without leaving your current screen.

I find that super useful. I use it all the time while I’m playing chess online; I can skip or rewind tracks without leaving the app.

The amount of people on this forum who don’t see any usefulness for the Dynamic Island is honestly surprising to me.

If they went away with the cutout displays, then we can go back to the old full status bar with the play indicator

 

[mrr]

I wish it offered support for the Apple Pencil!

 

[TracesOfArsenic]

I rather have a better quality front facing camera then the awful ones in any device that offers it under display. A lot of others companies want to be first to do stuff and do t care as much about quality

While I agree with you, Apple don't tend to do things better (anymore) when they're doing them last.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I really enjoy that it shows me that something is playing, what it is, and gives me a quick and easy way to control what’s playing.

Does that utility not count? Back in the day when something was playing on your iPhone, there would be a little “play” triangle in the status bar. That was nice.

Then that went away for many years, and there was no way of seeing whether or not audio was playing visually.

The Dynamic Island not only brought back the ability to see whether something was playing, but also gave you a way to interact with it without leaving your current screen.

I find that super useful. I use it all the time while I’m playing chess online; I can skip or rewind tracks without leaving the app.

The amount of people on this forum who don’t see any usefulness for the Dynamic Island is honestly surprising to me.

Those are good things, but they don't require the DI, and it fragments the interface. A lot of this is because they simply refuse to implement persistent notifications the way Android does.

When it's not technologically required anymore it will go away because nobody actually wants it there. Hence my use of the expression polishing a turd. It's just what Apple does. I would have just liked to see them come up with a more uniform solution.

 

[trusso]

Get your sand off my screen!
Just put a bezel at the top and fill it with as many sensors and cameras and speakers as they want.

Seriously. I'd much rather have a bezel than an eyesore.

This, and Touch ID, is why I still rock the SE 3.

 

[mazz0]

This coming to one Pro and not the other doesn’t make sense (especially since the smaller one would benefit more from it). Something’s not right here.

 

[svish]

Will be good to have a smaller dynamic island along with an improved front facing camera.

 

[orbital~debris]

Still can't believe how people just ate the marketing bullkrap of the dynamic island with the 14 pro. It wasn't and never was a feature. Nothing of how Apple uses it where they blend in the pixelless area in those notification bubbles is awesome. All it is is they put more black space around it, that's it. But the amount of people who just went nuts about how awesome it was still shocks me to this day.

The only thing I like about it on my 15 Pro is that it looks more modern, that's it.

I wonder how they're going to market it getting smaller.
"Now more of the black space in notification bubbles are pixels"?

I frequently find it a very useful feature, and pleasant to interact with. The subtle animations give it a little character.

It's nice to have a more prominent zone reserved for mic & camera indicators, as well as a multipurpose area that can be utilised by apps that need more space than a status bar, but not the entire display – things like timers, directions, music playback controls.

This gives lie to the idea that it's just marketing.

 

[smoking monkey]

I wonder how much narrower. It's pretty damn wide on my wife's iPhone 14 Pro Max. I'll be upgrading from my 12 Pro Max with notch to next year's 17 Pro Max with Dynamic Island.

Is the size of the Dynamic Island the same on the 14, 15, and 16 series?

Yes, No... er, maybe. The 14 and 15 are the same but according to a few outlets the 16 has a slightly smaller DI. While ChatGPT says that it's an illusion because the screen is bigger this year so it only appears smaller.

I wonder if there is a site that gives a rundown on all the measurements?

---
About the DI. I'm actually finding it quite useful for a multitude of reasons.

In terms of screen real estate I still prefer the notch though as it's pushed to the top and we don't get that sliver of useless screen. But compared to the 15, you get more screen real estate due to the bigger screen. I don't think it's actually physically higher on the phone though unfortunately.

So that's the bad, but the good is that as somebody who thought the DI was stupid, I've now come to appreciate how useful it is. It's nothing groundbreaking but it's more useful than I expected it to be. It's integrated well. I still wish it were up higher on the screen to give us more unobstructed screen real estate though. But if you compare the 16 Pro Max to the 13 Pro Max (Final Pro Max with a notch), you get more screen real estate, even with the DI. That's good.

 

[Octothorpe]

With Apple seemingly resigned to using engineering advancements as the main drivers, I sure hope this isn't the flagship feature.

 

[I7guy]

After all these years it’s time to get rid of everything and have just a screen, they should by now be able to put camera underneath. One thing I dislike with apple are the notches and cut outs. Inovative, don’t just make it smaller for another few years

Is there any manufacturer that has successfully done that whilst retaining class leading image quality for the front lens?