- According to online rumors, Apple is testing a new front camera for the iPhone
- It would replace the elongated “dynamic island” and look more like Android designs
- It is unclear whether it will be used on the iPhone 16
Apple is rumored to be planning to replace the iPhone’s dynamic island with a single hole-punch camera.
If the whispers are true, the industry leader will follow a design that Android phones have used for years.
The current iPhone design immerses the front-facing cameras in a pool of black pixels, called a dynamic island, which also functions as an interactive display rather than dead space on the phone’s screen.
“Apple is testing a hole-punch version for the iPhone 16 Pro, but it may not be ready yet,” said the X user MajinBuOfficial. “Details will depend on March next year.” I suspect that we will most likely not see such a version until the iPhone 17.
The change would live up to Apple’s reputation for spreading its new developments, which are already standard on Android phones, with great fanfare.
Samsung cell phones, for example, have punched front cameras. And that has been the case for years.
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A big advantage of the hole-punch camera design is that it takes up less screen space. Readers with excellent memories may remember that some older smartphones used to have large black areas at the top of the screen where the camera was located.
These were called notches.
However, nothing is confirmed yet when it comes to the latest iPhone.
Apple may be testing the feature, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the company has plans to change the camera design.
And in fact, there have been rumors that Android manufacturers might copy the dynamic island instead.
Although Apple has earned a reputation among tech geeks for keeping up with the competition, in some ways the company has been a trendsetter.
Some of these options include eliminating features.
Apple led the industry by eliminating headphone jacks and selling chargers separately rather than including them with a new phone.
In fact, earlier this year, Realme released its C55 phone, the first Android phone with a dynamic island-like feature.
The Samsung Galaxy A51, released in December 2019, has a punch-hole front camera
Third-party app makers have also introduced dynamic island apps for Android phones so that Android users can enjoy the one good feature that Apple has beaten to them.
MajinBuOfficial isn’t the only one hypothesizing about Apple’s next move. In fact, display industry pro Ross Young shared a mockup of an iPhone equipped with a hole-punch camera last year.
So it seems that this rumor has been circulating for some time.
And with the iPhone 16 set to launch in 2024, users in the comments on MajinBuOfficial’s post pointed out that Apple will likely keep the dynamic island for the coming generation as well.
But maybe not for the iPhone 17.
Apple gutted? Experts believe the iPhone 16 will finally bring a much smaller hole-punch front camera to market – but Android competitors have had them for years