The iPhone 14 Pro models have long been rumored to include a notch replacement that consists of a pill-shaped cutout and a separate hole-punch cutout for the Face ID system, but pre-event rumors this morning suggested that the cutouts will be combined into one wider cutout using software.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has now confirmed that this is true, and he says that the two separate cutouts will look like "one wide pill shaped cutout" as distinct cutouts would "look odd" when the iPhone is in use.
This is true. It looks like one wide pill shaped cutout. Having that separation would look odd during use. https://t.co/SrAtYQsENx — Mark Gurman (@markgurman) August 31, 2022
Apple is expected to combine the pill and hole cutouts into one single cutout for a more streamlined visual experience. The new pill-shaped cutout will not connect to the top of the device, but it will, as a result, look similar to the notch. Apple will deactivate the pixels in the dead space between the two cutouts to emulate a unified cutout.
The original source of the rumor that we shared this morning has also claimed that Apple will expand the blacked-out areas around the cutouts for content purposes. Apple might, for example, make the area wider to fit status icons on the left and right sides, or extend it downward into a large square for certain notifications.
It is only the iPhone 14 Pro models that are getting the new pill-shaped cutout, as the standard iPhone 14 models will continue to use a notch.
