iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max Update: Why Apple Isn't Getting Rid of the Dynamic Island Yet

On paper, it is a small change: a smaller Dynamic Island. In practice, it signals Apple — once again — that the future is always 'next year,' while the present consists of whatever can be shipped without taking a reputational risk.

Here is the gist, before the leak fog returns: Bloomberg reports that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will retain the Dynamic Island but shrink it; a cluster of voices on Weibo echo the same claim; and the cleaner, 'all-screen' design is being pushed to a 2027 anniversary model, rather than the fall 2026 iPhone cycle.

Dynamic Island Gets Smaller, Not Buried

The new claim — credited by MacRumors to Bloomberg — is that the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a smaller Dynamic Island rather than replace it with a simple hole-punch cutout. That matters because the rumour mill has spent the past year debating whether Apple would retain the pill-shaped software-and-sensors area or swap it for a more minimal design with under-screen Face ID and no Dynamic Island at all.

Now the chatter is coalescing. MacRumors reports that, alongside Bloomberg, 'several prominent leakers on Weibo and other social media sites' are insisting Apple will reduce the Dynamic Island's footprint but will not eliminate it. Weibo, one of China's major social platforms, is a regular clearinghouse for supply-chain whispers and carefully ambiguous 'insider' posts that are screenshotted into Western timelines within minutes.

There is a useful measure of humility baked into the reporting, too. Similar talk emerged last year about a smaller Dynamic Island on the iPhone 17 Pro — talk that ultimately went nowhere when the cutout remained the same size. Still, MacRumors notes that rumours have intensified in late 2025 and early 2026, and when multiple unconnected sources begin repeating the same hardware detail close to launch windows, it tends to be more signal than noise.

Why Apple Keeps the Dynamic Island

The more interesting question is not 'Can Apple hide Face ID under the display?' It is 'Why won't Apple finish the job?' The current explanation, as MacRumors outlines, is a compromise presented as progress. Apple is rumoured to move the Face ID dot illuminator under the display while keeping the front-facing camera, the Face ID dot projector, and the infrared camera housed in the Dynamic Island.

In other words, some components may disappear beneath the glass, but not those that would allow Apple to remove the cutout entirely. MacRumors adds that Apple is also rumoured to be implementing camera miniaturisation technology to help reduce the remaining hardware footprint, creating a tidier arrangement rather than a complete vanishing act.

It also retroactively explains why earlier 2025 rumors got messy. MacRumors suggests that the more dramatic 'no Dynamic Island' claims may have been guesses, a shelved internal plan, or simple confusion about which Face ID elements were moving under the display and which were not. And yes, that is a polite way of saying a lot of people online confidently described a phone they did not fully understand.​

The long-term goal is still being suggested. MacRumors reports that Apple ultimately wants an iPhone that is a 'slab of glass with no cutouts' and that the company may achieve this as part of a 20th anniversary iPhone planned for 2027, but not with the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026. Separate reporting linked to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has also pointed to a 2027 'mostly glass' anniversary iPhone concept, reinforcing the notion that Apple is reserving its cleanest front design for a ceremonial moment.

So, yes: the Dynamic Island might slim down. But Apple is not killing it yet — because Apple rarely kills anything until it can do it flawlessly, on its own schedule, and preferably in an anniversary keynote where the applause arrives on cue.