The iPhone 18 Pro is rumored to feature an upgraded 24MP front-facing camera, offering enhanced low-light capture capabilities and improved video call quality.
According to a new rumor, the upgraded camera may be housed in a smaller Dynamic Island cutout. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the Dynamic Island pill shape is shrinking on the iPhone 18 Pro and future iPhones.
While Gurman has not confirmed how much smaller the pill-shaped cutout will be, an earlier rumor from January stated that it will see an approximately 35% reduction, decreasing from 20.76mm to 13.49mm.
Weren’t we getting a punch hole cutout?
Some initial rumors suggested that the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will get a small punch hole cutout for the camera. Apple was supposed to achieve this by placing the Face ID components, including the dot projector, flood illuminator, and infrared camera, behind the screen.
These rumors were based on a patent Apple filed, which described removing sub-pixels to allow infrared rays to pass through the gap. However, the latest rumors suggest that this is not happening, at least for a couple of years.
What it means for you
I generally don’t mind the Dynamic Island cutout, but it does detract from the media-viewing experience by obscuring a significant portion of the content. A smaller cutout should result in improved user experience.
It could also mean that the Dynamic Island software elements will have a larger area to work with, allowing them to display more information at a glance. It would have been great if Apple could figure out a way to reduce the pill size to a punch-hole cutout, but I would take any improvement I can get.
While I’m not a fan of the large pill-shaped cutout, the Dynamic Island feature built around it is one of Apple’s best recent software innovations, and I’d like to see it remain even once we get a completely cutout-free display.