The Dynamic Island was the standout hit from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro models. But for the iPhone 15 range, Apple is already planning a redesign.
First leaked by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, then confirmed by reliable leaker Unknownz21, Apple will integrate the iPhone 15’s proximity sensor into the Dynamic Island. Kuo breaks the change down and how it will impact the company’s suppliers:
IQE is set to replace Landmark as the exclusive supplier of epi-wafer for proximity sensors in the iPhone 15 series. While all iPhone 15 models adopt a similar Dynamic Island design as the iPhone 14 Pro, the difference lies in the placement of the proximity sensor. In the iPhone 14 Pro, the proximity sensor is located under the display (outside the dynamic island). Conversely, in the iPhone 15 series, the proximity sensor is situated within the dynamic island, with almost no change to the Dynamic Island area.
Due to this change, Finisar (acquired by Coherent/II-VI) will shift to offering 940nm wavelength proximity sensors (compared to 1380nm for the iPhone 14 Pro), and the upstream epi-wafer supplier will transition to IQE.
Moving the proximity sensor from under the display to the Dynamic Island allows Apple to use a less powerful sensor, which should save the company money. The saving is unlikely to be passed on to customers, but rather put towards the cost of transitioning the entire iPhone 15 range to the Dynamic Island.
For me, the news brings mixed feelings. While adding the Proximity Sensor is said to make little difference to the size of the cutout behind the Dynamic Island, Apple could have kept the sensor under the display and made the cutout smaller, allowing the Dynamic Island to show more information.
On the flip side, retaining the same visual area provides consistency for third-party developers while saving Apple money. So it was probably a no-brainer for the company to take this route.
Dynamic Island usage on the iPhone 14 Pro Max
Apple
Will there be any performance benefits to moving the proximity sensor from under the display and into the Dynamic Island? There has been some speculation online that it could be used in conjunction with FaceID to improve its performance, but with Apple also downgrading the sensor, I would be surprised if this is the case.
All in all, this is likely to be one of those changes which took a lot of engineering effort but makes little difference to end users and will go unnoticed by most. The good news is a lot of other iPhone 15 upgrades won’t, including the aforementioned Dynamic Island for standard models and the range-wide switch to USB-C (with caveats).