The iPhone 18 Pro’s Dynamic Island could get the first-ever redesign

Ever since Apple launched the iPhone X in 2017, customers have been wondering when they’ll finally get access to all of the screen.

At first, there was an ugly notch cut out of the top. This notch shrank in 2021, then was replaced the following year by the Dynamic Island, which housed the front-facing cameras and sensors in a pill-shaped cutout that’s genuinely functional. The Dynamic Island is undoubtedly an improvement on the notch, but it’s still an obstruction: turn the phone on its side to watch a movie, and you’ll have to live with a black bar blocking out a small part of the display.

Some day, Apple will release a truly all-screen phone by hiding all of the sensors and cameras under the display, but we’re pretty sure that day isn’t coming anytime soon. But while technology remains expensive and difficult to deliver without weakening screen quality, we could get the next best thing: another shrinkage and potentially a bold new look, with the iPhone 18 Pro now expected to get a redesigned, smaller version of the Dynamic Island.

New backing for this theory came in the briefest of throwaway comments in an article this week by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While discussing a scoop about the Dynamic Island coming to the MacBook Pro (something we’ve covered elsewhere), Gurman drops a single sentence indicating his agreement that the same screen element will change size on the iPhone.

“Apple is also planning a redesigned Dynamic Island for the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max this year that is smaller,” he writes.

Such a bare claim wouldn’t ordinarily be especially convincing, even if Gurman is one of the better-informed leakers on the circuit. But this isn’t a new idea. In December an account on Chinese social media claimed Apple was testing “a micro-transparent glass panel” which would enable it to put some front sensors under the display and thereby shrink the Dynamic Island or even reduce it to a tiny and barely noticeable punch-hole circle. And something similar was proposed later that month by The Information.

So this should be regarded as corroboration of an existing theory rather than something new, and when multiple sources say the same thing, it starts to be worth our while to listen. It starts to sound convincing.

Nevertheless, we’re still more than six months from launch, so everything we hear should be taken with a degree of skepticism. There will be plenty of rumors to come; to keep up with it all, remember to bookmark our iPhone 18 superguide. And to have your mind blown by the (possible) major upgrades, take a look at 5 iPhone 18 rumors that will make you hate the phone you have now.