Updated on October 27th with more reports on how the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17, and iPhone 17 Air differ.
If a new report is correct, next September’s iPhone will look significantly different. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is predicted to have a small cutout on the screen called Dynamic Island. And a new report claims that Apple is considering changing the technology used in the iPhone’s display to match that of the Apple Watch. And it’s possible that both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 will have the same size display.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max – Will the dynamic island shrink on the iPhone 17 Pro Max?
This is a change from the current situation where the iPhone 16’s display is 6.1 inches, while the Pro’s display is 6.3 inches. According to reports, the iPhone 17 will have a larger screen at 6.3 inches, the same as the Pro. That’s not the only change.
The iPhone 16 series includes the iPhone 16 Plus, which is a larger version of the regular iPhone, but the Plus is not expected in the iPhone 17 series. Instead, it is thought that an entirely new model called the iPhone 17 Air will arrive. And in terms of screen size, the iPhone 17 Air is thought to have a 6.6-inch display size, which is unlike any previous iPhone.
This means that the design of the iPhone 17 series will have a distinctive new look, with the two phones currently offering a 6.3-inch screen only on the iPhone 16 Pro, and the largest screen on the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Similarly, it is 6.9 inches. The other one is 6.6 inches right in the middle.
What’s less clear is what Dynamic Island will look like on each phone, as explained below.
Let’s return to the iPhone 17 Pro’s display and how its design changes to match the Apple Watch. According to a report by South Korean website The Elec, similar changes are being considered after the latest version of the Apple Watch Series 10 changed the nature of the watch’s display, and that “in the future, it will also be applied to iPhones.” It is expected to be applied.”
Modern watches use LTPO3, which is different from the type of LTPO used in older 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 said in a machine-translated version.
So, just like Apple took the Apple Watch Series 4’s LTPO OLED screen and applied it to the iPhone 13 three years later, the company could make the same changes to the iPhone.
It’s unclear if this will arrive in time for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it’s not impossible. It’s interesting to note that it took three years for the Watch technology to migrate from smartwatches to iPhones, but Apple applied it to the entire iPhone line. There’s a good chance the new technology will make its way to the Pro iPhone first, perhaps as early as 2025.
The new design was reported by analyst Jeff Pugh and MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol. The use of something called a metalens means Apple can shrink the portion of the front of the display occupied by the front-facing camera and Face ID technology.
As you may know, a dynamic island is a way in which the screen around the cutout shrinks, expands, and changes shape in order to add additional information to the home screen (for example, to display album art while music is playing) ) is Apple’s term for While you’re waiting to board your flight, you can also get flight information from the excellent Flighty app.
Interestingly, Pu says this change only applies to the iPhone 17 Pro Max and not the smaller iPhone 17 Pro. This seems surprising, but if correct, it breaks with tradition.
While there are some differences on the back of the iPhone, including camera features, the Pro and Pro Max have looked pretty much the same until now. The news that this change won’t apply to regular iPhone 17 models isn’t all that surprising.
If you don’t know what a metalens is, you’re not alone. MacRumor describes it this way: “While traditional iPhone cameras have a curved lens that directs light toward the image sensor, a metalens is a thin, flat lens etched with microscopic patterns that can focus the light more precisely. In a research report this month, Phu did not provide specific details about how Apple plans to use metalens in its Face ID system, and how the change would narrow the dynamic island. It didn’t even explain what happened.”
The new report doubles down on the information Pu provided earlier this year, suggesting Apple’s plans are consistent and still pointing in the same direction.
Pu has a track record of high accuracy, so I’m still surprised they introduced design changes to the Pro Max that left the Pro out in the cold, but this report is worth taking seriously.
