If you’ve been following iPhone 18 Pro reports recently, you’ll know that there are two competing rumors from usually reliable sources about how Apple plans to integrate Face ID into the display, and both of them likely affect the fate of the Dynamic Island – and in turn the overall look of the display itself.
Last month, The Information‘s Wayne Ma said that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max would have “only a small hole cutout in the top-left corner to accommodate the front-facing camera.”
Unless Apple opts to still periodically display the familiar pill-shaped interface element in its iOS 27 software, Ma’s wording suggests that the devices might not have a Dynamic Island at all. Taking Ma’s report as a cue, developer Filip Vabroušek has helpfully attempted to visualize what such an iPhone 18 Pro model could look like (see below – and ignore the iOS version shown).
Concept render of iPhone 18 Pro with top-left cutout (credit: Filip Vabroušek)
All well and good, you might think. However, Counterpoint Research VP Ross Young this week lobbed a grenade into Ma’s settled territory by claiming that the iPhone 18 Pro will still have some visible Face ID elements.
For this reason, Young believes that the devices will still have a Dynamic Island, albeit a “smaller” version compared to the one on the iPhone 14 Pro through iPhone 16 models. Vabroušek has again stepped in to give us a peek at this alternative implementation.
Concept render of iPhone 18 Pro with smaller Dynamic Island (credit: Filip Vabroušek)
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman has also said that Apple will shrink the size of the Dynamic Island on at least some iPhone models launching next year, so there are now multiple sources who believe that iPhone 18 models will still have a smaller Dynamic Island rather than only a front camera hole.
So there you have it: two rival interpretations of what the iPhone 18 Pro’s display could look like. It’s quite a big deal for anyone who plans to upgrade their iPhone next year, considering how much time we spend staring at the screen.
As for the 20th anniversary iPhone, due in 2027, Young’s roadmap also threw a spanner in the works by refuting claims by the likes of Gurman that it will be the first iPhone with a truly uninterrupted display with no cutouts.
Young now believes that the first iPhone with both under-screen Face ID and an under-screen front camera will be released all the way in 2030, suggesting that a truly all-screen iPhone remains a full five years away.
