Updated Jan. 25 with more details of what’s coming for both the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 displays.
The next Pro iPhone will see a significant change to the design of the screen, according to a new report. In recent years, the display has changed in size, but not in one vital element: the Dynamic Island. Meanwhile a separate report promises a striking upgrade for the iPhone 18 display, with greater brightness on offer.
What will the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro displays be like?
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The Dynamic Island is the lozenge-shaped area near the top of the display that first appeared on the iPhone 14 Pro which debuted in September 2022. It replaced the larger cut-out found on all Face ID iPhones from the iPhone X onwards. It’s now found only on the iPhone 16e in Apple’s current range.
Dynamic Island Set For Its First Major Redesign
It hasn’t changed since it appeared, but a new report claims it will be different this fall on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Earlier this month, there had been rumors of the camera in the screen shifting to the left, but this was later claimed to be a mistranslation of reports. So, what is happening?
“The Dynamic Island cutout width on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max has been reduced from 20.76 mm to 13.49 mm, representing a reduction of approximately 35%,” reported Ice Universe, a prolific leaker with a strong track record, on X.
A Smaller Cutout, But A Big Visual Difference
While that’s obviously not the same as a single, circular lens peeping out, it’s a big enough change to be instantly noticeable. Cue comments of, “Oooh, you’ve got the new Pro iPhone,” perhaps.
It may be that the flood illuminator, a component that makes Face ID work, will be hidden under the display rather than visible through it, and that could account for the smaller size.
Which iPhones Will Miss Out On The Change?
A previous leak had commented that whatever change is coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max would not come to the iPhone 18 or iPhone Air 2. I believe this about the iPhone 18 — the regular iPhone didn’t see the first Dynamic Island until a year after it had arrived on the iPhone 14 Pro —I’m not sure I think that it will miss the iPhone Air 2 as well. First, because that phone, according to some reports, won’t launch until 2027 and secondly because it’s marketed as a premium iPhone.
iPhone 18 New Display Leaks
A regular leaker called Instant Digital posted on Weibo that a Chinese supplier called BOE had, “little hope of making panels for the iPhone 18 because Apple’s brightness requirements for the next-generation device are unprecedentedly high,” as MacRumors reported.
The clear result of this is that the iPhone 18 is about to get brighter than it is. The current model, the iPhone 17, has a Super Retina XDR display for the first time. It offers a typical brightness of 1,000 nits, 1,600 nits peak (HDR), and 3,000 nits peak outdoor brightness. It looks like the iPhone 18 will exceed this, given BOE’s experience.
Intriguingly, the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro have the same brightness levels, so it makes sense that the iPhone 18 Pro may be heading for a brighter screen as well — it seems unlikely that the iPhone 18 will beat the iPhone 18 Pro display in any way, especially since the current iPhone 17 is the first regular iPhone to match the ProMotion capabilities of the Pro and Air iPhones.
I’ll be updating this story as more details leak.