iPhone 18 Pro May Not Have a Smaller Dynamic Island After All

[spazzcat]

What we know ... there will be an iPhone 18 pro release in the fall of 2026

 

[spazzcat]

Apple is nothing if not clever and greedy.

They know that many buyers would prefer no notch so they dangle the carrot and talk about a future iPhone without it.

Conversely, one very important aspect of the notch is making the iPhone instantly recognizable as such.

Finally by keeping it exactly as it is Apple maximizes profits by not changing it.

Those who believe that Apple can do no wrong are quick to tell us how much they love the notch. Or at a minimum how their eyes don't even notice it. Blind loyalty.

Most of this is opinion/nonsense but yes, the notch is really important to their design as a distinguishes them from others phones. I fully expect at some point they will remove the physical notch, but it will still be there as virtual and go away when you're watching videos I am willing to wager the reason that hasn't happened yet is they currently aren't getting their standards for behind the screen cameras and sensors.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Most of this is opinion/nonsense but yes, the notch is really important to their design as a distinguishes them from others phones. I fully expect at some point they will remove the physical notch, but it will still be there as virtual and go away when you're watching videos I am willing to wager the reason that hasn't happened yet is they currently aren't getting their standards for behind the screen cameras and sensors.

They won’t get their standard for behind screen cameras because anything that blocks the ability for light to fall on a sensor will always degrade image quality. Companies that have tried have gone back to hole cameras because it a simple and easy solution to “How can I provide quality selfie images to my customers without spending a lot of money on exotic tech?”

 

[beermode]

Why do we worry about this stuff still? It's amazing that people with a network that work in factories that violate their terms of employment call themselves "security advisors". Who pays these people? And why do we need 2 articles a day speculating over a phone, which is fast becoming the next toaster or washing machine.

 

[Zenman12]

All this back and forth. It’s going to have the DI. I’m willing to bet money on it.

 

[boswald]

I love the Dynamic Island concept, but it's underutilized and it does take up a lot of room. If they can better integrate it with first and third-party apps and bring it down a notch (no pun), that'd be great. My biggest gripe is when DI takes over where the cell signal icon is on a call. Who signed off on that one?

 

[Kylo83]

How many more years of the same annoying cut out

 

[JulianL]

Irrelevant to a few countries including the USA who already have this but as a European I’m wondering whether 2026 will be the year when Apple drops the physical SIM card slot on all Pro models worldwide. It’s laid the groundwork to a large extent with iPhone Air and being able to move to a single motherboard design and not having to place orders for batteries of different capacity depending on region would surely be a saving for Apple.

I was worried about such a change a few years ago because so few MVNOs in the UK offered eSIMs but now I just want that little bit more battery capacity that countries with the eSIMs-only Pros get.

 

[thatguywill]

I'm still quite happy with my 14 Pro. It was a significant upgrade from the 12 I had before. Nothing since then has enticed me to upgrade again.

Exactly the same here, can’t bring myself to upgrade from the 14Pro!

 

[groove-agent]

They should just do a thin bezel at the top of the screen and keep the screen uninterrupted. I wonder however, if that 1cm change would have the selfie camera pointing at a weird angle.

Here is a concept idea. I didn't have time to redo the wallpaper.

 

[tridley68]

Never noticed the dynamic island won't stop be me from my yearly upgrade

 

[ChrisMac47]

This is a serious first-world problem! (Can't MR focus on things that are important?)

 

[Reeneman]

Looool but I thought the insider knows all this stuff?

 

[Reeneman]

That thing that Apple decided on at least 2 years ago is still what Apple decided it would be and haven’t changed… regardless of how many leakers said otherwise. 🙂

This 100%

 

[RALentz]

Sounds like a cost savings issue to reuse the Dynamic Island design and components from the iPhone 17 Pro to help deal with the soaring costs of memory chips.

-R

 

[Nyx1]

What people expect from this company they bring lazy just make product cash grab

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Why do we worry about this stuff still? It's amazing that people with a network that work in factories that violate their terms of employment call themselves "security advisors". Who pays these people? And why do we need 2 articles a day speculating over a phone, which is fast becoming the next toaster or washing machine.

They don’t even have to actually have connections in the supply chain anymore. Note how “Apple will be doing” becomes “Apple are no longer doing” for something Apple was never doing. 🙂

 

[nordique]

For anything display related, Ross Young is the guy who I’d trust in the context of rumours

 

[W2u7Yw4HaD]

The island is just a stop gap until they can put it all under screen. Seems stupid to make it smaller and making dev's lives more difficult to support so many screen sizes and sizes of islands. So leave it be until it's gone forever....

 

[eifelbube]

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models may not have a smaller Dynamic Island after all, …

Suggesting headline for next week’s and final iteration of Kuo’s Dynamic Island size rumor:
iPhone 18 Pro May Or May Not Have a Smaller Dynamic Island After All

 

[eifelbube]

Good point. I'm going with Dynamic Punchout. It just goes to show you how strong Apple's use of buzzwords is. They come up with it and it becomes part of our grammar in such an abnormally normalized way. We would have never called a camera hump a "plateau" in 2024, but here we are.

They are definitely not synonymous! I would not say that Flagstaff, AZ —where I live— is situated on the southwestern edge of the Colorado Hump.

 

[Tagbert]

This must be a joke. It’s been 4 generations, I don’t believe its that hard to reduce the size of the Dynamic Island.

0 meaningful camera hardware updates since the 14 PRO series for the main sensor, plus not reduced Island will make the 18 Pro a disappointing upgrade

Reducing the size of DI requires developing versions of faceID and camera that can work well while being covered in the screen. Do you think that is a trivial task?

 

[grammatica]

Brought to you by Mark Gurman—I dont trust him

 

[svish]

Don’t know what will happen. It is possible that any kind of change might be reserved for next year. Maybe the 20th anniversary will have a hole punch and the other models might have a smaller Dynamic Island.

 

[Mike Wolf]

Apple is nothing if not clever and greedy.

They know that many buyers would prefer no notch so they dangle the carrot and talk about a future iPhone without it.

Conversely, one very important aspect of the notch is making the iPhone instantly recognizable as such.

Finally by keeping it exactly as it is Apple maximizes profits by not changing it.

Those who believe that Apple can do no wrong are quick to tell us how much they love the notch. Or at a minimum how their eyes don't even notice it. Blind loyalty.

I get where you’re coming from but outside of the 16e and 17e Apple hasn’t made a phone with a notch in years. For the most part the pill cutout is their current design identity.