Apple iPhone 17 Pro: will the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro?
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Update March 31: This post, first published on Sunday, March 29, was updated to add details of more leaks and looks at their authenticity.
The next iPhone release from Apple is expected this September and will include the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. The design of these models will have been finalized by now, so the latest leak gives a clue to the display. And now a new leak claims to show exactly what the new look will be while another leak suggests a name for the new design. More on that below.
iPhone 18 Pro Leak: A New Look For The Display
The report suggests that the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max — plus the iPhone 18 which is expected to come later, in spring 2027 — will have similar bezels to the current models, but introduce a smaller Dynamic Island.
“The iPhone 18 series retains the same bezel design, except for a smaller central island; the overall bezel size remains the same as the iPhone 17 series,” said Ice Universe, a leaker with a decent track record, on Weibo. The original post is in Chinese, I’ve used a machine translation.
Dynamic Island is the software response to the cut-out at the top of the display. The cut-out houses the front-facing camera and the apparatus that powers Face ID.
How The iPhone 18 Display Could Change
Dynamic Island presents extra data when needed in a way that disguises the cut-out so it’s hard to spot. It delivers extra information, for example, showing apps like Apple Music running in the background with album art at the edge of the island.
To achieve a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple will almost certainly need to shrink the cut-out that sits beneath it. In fact, that’s what’s really at stake here: the data the Dynamic Island is, as the name suggests, changeable, so it can still take up bigger parts of the display when needed.
Impact On iPhone 18e And iPhone Fold
There are several unknowns when it comes to what the new leak means. For a start, even if it comes to the iPhone 18 in spring 2027, I doubt the phone expected to launch alongside it, iPhone 18e, will have it. More likely, it will replace the larger cut-out on the iPhone 17e with the current-sized Dynamic Island.
Secondly, will the smaller Dynamic Island come to the much-rumored iPhone Fold? Time will tell.
iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island In New Leak
In the last few hours, a new leak has shown an image which purports to show exactly what the smaller Dynamic Island will look like.
A post on X from an account called Early Apple shows an image of what’s said to be an iPhone screen. The flash on the phone that took the photo has lit up a circle at the left of the display, which could be the Face ID sensor if it’s now buried under the screen, for instance.
The result is a much smaller Dynamic Island in the center of the screen.
And now Ice Universe has also chipped in on the topic with their own thoughts, saying that the “iPhone 18 series bezel are the same as the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16. But all three iPhone 18 reduce the width of Dynamic Island,” the latest post on X read.
This leak is consistent with Early Apple’s opinion — multiple leaks in the same direction don’t prove either is right, but they add to the momentum.
Not all leaks are equal and while Ice Universe has a strong pedigree, another source is open to question. While Majin Bu has been a reliable source of Apple leaks, a new account on X has appeared called @MajinBuOfficial. Actually, it’s MajinBuofficia, which makes it sound less convincing.
Although it uses the same image that Majin Bu used to favor, there are suggestions that this is not the real deal.
In the latest post, the account, whoever is behind it, suggests that the new Dynamic Island in its smaller version will be called Nano Island.
Here’s the full post on X: “It seems that Apple has set out to amaze us with its new products this year, despite a delay of several months for the iPhone Fold, everything seems to be taking shape, especially with the new iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max with the new dynamic island called (NANO ISLAND)**!,” it reads.
While it’s tough to be sure with Apple, the suggested name of Nano Island seems nonsensical to me. The point of the island is not its size but the fact that it changes, that is, it’s dynamic.
I’ll need more evidence before I’m willing to credit the new account with the same respect that the previous Majin Bu earned.
All that said, I still think the change in the Dynamic Island is coming. What’s not clear is if it will just be for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, or for the iPhone 18 as well when it arrives, likely in spring 2027.
It’s anyone’s guess what the outside cover of the iPhone Fold will look like. In recent days, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has claimed that Face ID won’t be on the folding iPhone because it wouldn’t fit.
Instead, because the Face ID unit is too thick for the svelte dimensions expected for the Fold, the pricey smartphone will instead revert to Touch ID to unlock. That’s surprising for the most expensive iPhone ever, given that Apple has always boasted that Face ID is much more secure than Touch ID.
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