Multiple sources are now converging on one notable design tweak for the iPhone 18 Pro: a smaller Dynamic Island.
Counterpoint Research VP Ross Young reiterated today that 2026's iPhone models will feature under-screen Face ID, but with a twist. Despite moving Face ID components beneath the display, Young expects a "smaller" Dynamic Island to remain visible.
The prediction lines up with a recent report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who over the weekend said Apple plans to shrink the Dynamic Island on next year's models.
Both sources fill in the blanks of a previous report by The Information's Wayne Ma, who said that the iPhone 18 Pro would have "only a small hole cutout in the top-left corner to accommodate the front-facing camera." Ma's wording implied that the devices might not have a Dynamic Island at all, but the weight of evidence suggests otherwise.
For what it's worth, Young remains uncertain whether the iPhone 18's front camera will actually move to the top-left corner or stay centered.
The apparent consensus builds on earlier iPhone 17 rumors from analyst Jeff Pu, who claimed all four models this year would adopt more tightly integrated metalens technology for Face ID. Digital Chat Station previously suggested this change would reduce component sizes, leading to a narrower Dynamic Island on the iPhone 17 Pro Max specifically.
However, Ming-Chi Kuo threw cold water on those iPhone 17 predictions in January, expecting the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the upcoming series. Indeed, it is starting to sound like we'll have to wait another year for the pill-shaped cutout to get smaller.
What makes this rumored change all the more intriguing is the Dynamic Island's dual nature as both hardware and software, since it cleverly masks the physical camera and sensor cutout with adaptive interface elements that expand and contract around notifications and Live Activities.
What if Apple maintained the Dynamic Island interface even after eliminating the physical cutout entirely, for an almost all-screen iPhone 18 Pro that still periodically displays the familiar pill-shaped interface element in software? In such a scenario, the Dynamic Island could theoretically become simply a floating software element rather than a hardware-dictated design constraint. Is that what the rumors are missing? We'll just have to wait and see.
