Apple could shrink the size of the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 models releasing next year ahead of a major redesign in 2027.
Mark Gurman reported on Bloomberg that shrinking the Dynamic Island next year will be a prelude to a major redesign, coming in time for the iPhone’s twentieth anniversary. He didn’t learn how much smaller the Dynamic Island may get.
Apple hasn’t changed the size of the Dynamic Island much since debuting it on the iPhone 14 Pr and iPhone 14 Pro Max. All models in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 lineups have the Dynamic Island. This is a cutout in the OLED panel at the top of the display which houses the Face ID components and the front-facing camera.
Rumor: iPhone 18 to shrink the size of the Dynamic Island
Gurman says the iPhone 17 models releasing in September will bring a redesign of the Pro models and a new ultra-thin iPhone, dubbed by the press “iPhone Air.” However, design changes will be just a taste of things to come in 2027.
Within Apple, this year’s iPhone lineup is considered an industrial design revamp. That includes the new skinnier iPhone 17 “Air” model, as well as Pro versions with a redesigned back and camera area. From the front, the new phones won’t look much different than recent models, but the Pro changes on the rear are certainly noticeable. In any case, these tweaks are just a stepping stone toward next year’s upgrades.
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That’s when Apple will shrink the Dynamic Island, moving closer to a screen that truly covers the entire front of the phone, and roll out a foldable model. More changes will come in 2027, as I’ve earlier reported, with a Pro model redesign tied to the iPhone’s 20-year anniversary.
Coming in 2027, twenty years after the original iPhone went on sale in 2017, the twentieth anniversary model is rumored to bring a true all-screen design with curved glass edges and no visible breaks in the display, featuring an OLED panel that wraps around all edges. The redesign will require relocating the Face ID sensors and the front-facing camera from the Dynamic Island.
The Information reported that next year’s iPhone 18 model will relocate Face ID hardware under the OLED panel, with only a small hole in the panel near the top-left corner to accommodate the selfie camera. The Information may have gotten the timeframe wrong because Apple would surely want to save under-screen Face ID for the major redesign in 2027. The publication may have been intentionally fed wrong information by Apple sources, which is one of the ways Apple catches leakers.
That could be the case, as no other major publication has backed The Informatio story. Additionally, one leaker has claimed that the iPhone models releasing in 2027 will feature both under-panel Face ID and an under-screen selfie camera, resulting in a truly seamless appearance.