Apple Apparently Still Undecided on iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island - MacRumors
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Apple Apparently Still Undecided on iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island

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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.

Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

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.

Related Roundup: iPhone 18 Pro
Tags: Digital Chat Station, Dynamic Island Guide

Top Rated Comments

U
upandown
5 hours ago at 08:15 am
Yeah, this article is BS. There’s no way they don’t have it figured out yet. That’s not how it works.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacUserFella Avatar
MacUserFella
5 hours ago at 08:12 am
Doesn’t Apple plan iPhones years in advance? Surely it doesn’t take THAT long to decide on something so simple
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
munpip214
5 hours ago at 08:22 am
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
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I/0 Avatar
I/0
5 hours ago at 08:18 am
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.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zenman12 Avatar
Zenman12
5 hours ago at 08:16 am
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.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Zenman12 Avatar
Zenman12
4 hours ago at 09:18 am

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.
You have no idea how long (and difficult) tooling, sourcing, manufacturing, takes, if they make a new cutout. They have to do the visual display and touchscreen display tooling process to include the new dimensions. Then the front camera module needs to be designed and manufactured to fit the right display cutout too (which requires its own tooling process). The glass fits on top of all of it (which if they are putting things like the flood illuminator under the display the glass composition may have changed so the FI can penetrate through the glass), not just the cutout. This doesn’t even get into test runs, the time needed to fix hiccups, and then doing more test runs after, until they get it right. There is no way they’re deciding this late. It’s less than 6 months. Sorry.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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