Apple's Dynamic Island is a clever way to embrace the pill-shaped camera cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro series, but a designer revealed that it takes up more screen space than the notch. The company's first major redesign of the iPhone's front panel happened in 2017 with the iPhone X. The model ditched the large bezels that characterized previous iPhones for more screen space. Apple also introduced Face ID that same year, housing the required cameras and sensors in the wide notch.

Apple switched up the Face ID housing with the iPhone 14 Pro, trading in the notch for a pill-shaped cutout dubbed Dynamic Island. The Dynamic Island maximizes the iPhone's display technology to provide an immersive experience to users. Apple uses an OLED display for the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max to make the Dynamic Island possible. OLED displays are made up of pixels that can be individually shut off, creating deeper blacks. That's a significant improvement over traditional LED displays, which are lit up by a backlight that illuminates every pixel — even those showing the color black. Apple's Dynamic Island uses the OLED display to blend in with the pill-shaped camera cutout and add additional information in the status bar.

Related: iPhone 14 Pro & iPhone 14 Pro Max: Everything You Need To Know

The Dynamic Island takes up more space on the iPhone's display than the outgoing notch, according to 3D artist Ian Zelbo. In a series of renders, Zelbo overlaid the pill-shaped cutout on the notch, showing that it extends lower on the screen. That means that although Dynamic Island is more engaging to the user than the notch found on most recent iPhones, it will obstruct more of the user's content. The pill-shaped cutout extends just a bit more than the notch did, but it is still disappointing to see that more screen area is covered by the front facing camera system.

The Dynamic Island Is Placed Lower Than The Notch

iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island Vs Notch
Image: Ian Zelbo/Twitter

The Dynamic Island takes up more screen space than the notch on last year's iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — but that isn't the whole story. Apple has made the iPhone 14 Pro taller in an attempt to compensate for the Dynamic Island. The iPhone 14 Pro comes in at 5.81-inches in height, compared to 5.78-inches on the iPhone 13 Pro. However, the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the iPhone 13 Pro Max are the same size, measuring 6.33-inches in height.

The Dynamic Island is a more interactive way to house the Face ID cameras and sensors than the notch, but is it a better solution? The pill-shaped camera cutout can display notifications and currently-running actions. That includes Live Activities, a way for third-party app developers to show time-sensitive information at the operating system level. It can also display now playing media, status lights for camera and microphone use, directions, and more. Dynamic Island seems like a better overall solution than the notch, but it looks like the pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro will end up obstructing more of the screen than the notch did.

Source: Ian Zelbo/Twitter