Updated Oct. 26 with details of how the iPhone display technology could change the iPhone’s design in another way.
Next September, the iPhone will look noticeably different, if a new report is right. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is predicted to have a smaller cut-out, called the Dynamic Island, on the screen. And a new report now claims that Apple is thinking of changing the technology used in the display of the iPhone to match that of the Apple Watch.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – will the Dynamic Island shrink on the iPhone 17 Pro Max?
The report by Korean website The Elec says that after changing the nature of the display on the watch in the latest iteration, Apple Watch Series 10, a similar change is being considered and “will also be applied to iPhone in the future.”
The latest Watch uses LTPO3, which is different from the kind of LTPO used on earlier watches. “Apple announced on its website that the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) LTPO TFT technology applied to the Apple Watch 10 series is LTPO3,” the report says in a machine translated version.
So, just as Apple took the LTPO OLED screen of the Apple Watch Series 4 and applied it to the iPhone 13 three years later, the company could make the same change for the iPhone.
It’s not certain that this would arrive in time for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it’s not impossible. While it took three years for the Watch tech to move from smartwatch to iPhone, note that Apple applied it to the whole iPhone range. It’s quite possible that the new tech could arrive on the Pro iPhone first, perhaps as soon as 2025. We’ll see.
As for the new design, that is reported by analyst Jeff Pu, as reported by Joe Rossignol at MacRumors. The adoption of something called a metalens means that Apple can shrink the part of the front of the display that’s taken up with the front-facing camera and Face ID tech.
As you’ll know, Dynamic Island is the term Apple uses for the way the screen around the cut-out shrinks, grows and changes shape to add extra information to the home screen, for instance, showing album art when you’re playing music or flight information from the brilliant Flighty app while you’re waiting to board a plane.
Interestingly, Pu says that the change will only come to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, not the smaller iPhone 17 Pro. This seems surprising but if correct will be a break with tradition.
While there have been differences on the rear of the iPhone, such as camera capabilities, the Pro and Pro Max have always looked largely identical until now. Less of a surprise is the news that this change will not be for the regular iPhone 17 models.
If you don’t know what a metalens is, you’re not alone. MacRumor explains it like this: “While a traditional iPhone camera has curved lenses that redirect light towards the image sensor, a metalens is a thin and flat lens with microscopic patterns etched onto it that can focus light more precisely. In his research note this month, Pu did not provide any specific details about how Apple plans to use a metalens for the Face ID system, nor did he explain how the change would result in a narrower Dynamic Island.”
The new report doubles down on information Pu had proffered earlier in the year, suggesting that Apple’s plan has been consistent and still heading in the same direction.
Pu has a strong record of accuracy, so while I still think the introduction of a design change for the Pro Max that leaves the Pro out in the cold surprises me, it’s a report worth taking it seriously.
