I want the iPhone 17 to get off the Dynamic Island – but not for the reason you think
Apple’s Dynamic Island, that pill-shaped and completely replaceable black space that sits on top of your iPhone 16 (along with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 Pro models), is relatively small in the scheme of things. As measured by me, it is usually between 22mm and 32mm wide and 6mm deep – unless you touch it, and then it can expand to 7cm wide and almost 3cm deep.
It’s a useful space at times, but it’s also screen space I’m tired of giving up.
Please understand that I am generally a Dynamic Island fan and wrote about it lovingly in 2022 (I called it “clever and impressive”). But I’m a bigger fan of everything else happening on my iPhone 16 Pro Max’s screen and am getting tired of this rather large and often mostly dark cutout.
I started thinking again about the future of this space after a wave of new rumors about Apple’s possible plans for the iPhone 17. Some claim that Apple may want to reduce the size of the island. by reducing the components within it.
One of the reasons I like Dynamic Island is because it’s not all dead space, and it’s not all screen either. Instead, the Dynamic Island is a clever combination of the two. There is a proximity sensor, an infrared projector (also called Time of Flight (ToF) sensor) and a 12 MP camera.
Before the Dynamic Island, there was the TrueDepth notch, which was introduced with the iPhone X as part of the then new Face ID system. I also love Face ID with all my heart. It’s so much more efficient than unlocking your phone, apps and services with your finger.
Island life
What Apple has done with the Dynamic Island is that it has moved the notch down into the screen space and then cut it into pieces so that the three components between the two sensors and the one camera are intersected by a small piece of active screen. For example, notifications and display elements that notify you of system activity (a red dot to indicate that the camera or microphone is active) appear between the Face ID sensor and the camera lens.
I like this effect and the way Apple designed all the Dynamic Island animations to make it look like the pill is growing and shrinking smoothly to suit its current purpose. It’s all so well done.
Still, I want to get as close as possible to a pristine iPhone 17 screen — which was the iPhone display before the iPhone
In the world of modern, edge-to-edge displays, this is almost but not quite a dream. The Samsung Galaxy S24, for example, only has a small opening for the front camera. On the flexible inner screen of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung covers the camera cutout with pixels that disappear when it’s time to take a selfie.
This is what I want for the iPhone 17. No more half measures to accommodate the True Depth Module. I want Apple to find a way to permanently hide Face ID and the proximity sensor behind the screen. I wonder if any of them can be shrunk down enough to fit the ultra-thin screen bezel.
For the 12 MP (or maybe 48 PM) front camera, let’s go the Samsung route and hide it with live pixels that shift to transparent when it’s selfie time.
You might think this will kill the Dynamic Island. That could be the case, but the concept of showing app status and other activity notifications could be handed over to Siri. Perhaps sometimes it can go from the ambient glow of the screen to a Dynamic Island-like animation that appears briefly at the top of the screen. I would turn it on when you shake the phone.
Considering that Siri’s Apple Intelligence update should bring more third-party app knowledge to its digital assistant, I think this makes sense.
Build a raft
Even if Apple does away with the physical island and all those little status notifications, will we miss it that much? How many times do we have to stare at our phones to know what’s going on? If the status or activity update is that important, it should be a notification.
The chance of this happening is not zero percent. After all, the iPhone 17 could be a major handset redesign. We think it will be a lot thinner (at least one model, commonly called the iPhone 17 Air) and have much better cameras. If the screen undergoes a major update, such as the tandem OLED technology in the ultra-thin iPad Pro M4 13 inches, then removing the Dynamic Island makes sense.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate Dynamic Island, but sometimes I feel like I’m stranded on it (or at least with it) and ready for rescue.