What do you think of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island? Apple’s pill-shaped cutout seems to be rather contentious, but I’m here to throw my hat into the ring firmly on the side of Team Island. Because unlike my colleague Lance Ulanoff, I absolutely love the Dynamic Island.
As I wrote recently, I’ve not been entirely convinced by Apple’s Action button in the six months that I’ve had my iPhone 16 Pro. But the Dynamic Island is a feature that I really can’t help but admire for both its functionality and its aesthetics.
Yet start browsing social media and you’ll quickly get the feeling that it has received a lot of negative feedback since it arrived with the iPhone 14 Pro. Even the opinions that aren’t negative seem to be closer to an apathetic shrug.
Perhaps part of that is driven by reviewers and enthusiasts who get new iPhones every year. For them, the novelty has probably worn off. But for someone like me who stepped up from an iPhone 12 Pro to an iPhone 16 Pro, the Dynamic Island has been brilliant.
What’s the big deal?
Ultimately, my appreciation for the Dynamic Island comes down to a few factors.
For one thing, it lets me tweak timers and fiddle with podcast playback without having to open the apps themselves. Before, I was constantly switching back and forth between apps when I only needed to make the slightest adjustment. That quickly grew old, but with the Dynamic Island, there are far fewer breaks in my workflow.
As well as that, it handles AirDrop requests without needing to open another window. It gives extra controls, like adjusting my iPhone’s flashlight strength and beam dimensions. There are even mini games from third-party developers, like Pixel Pals from the creator of Apollo (previously one of my favorite iOS apps before it was shut down).
Add to that the fact that the Dynamic Island is animated beautifully with smooth transitions and effects that just look sumptuous. That means that when I have to use it, I enjoy it.
All this is far better than the ugly notch on my old iPhone 12 Pro. That was purely functional and simply existed to hide the front-facing cameras and Face ID sensor array. The Dynamic Island still does that job, but it actually makes your iPhone’s cutout useful. Instead of taking away from your phone, it adds to it.
Apple didn’t just throw its hands up and admit it couldn’t hide these cameras and sensors – the company thought up a truly elegant solution, and I’m really glad that it did.
A beautiful halfway measure
That’s not to say that the Dynamic Island is a flawless masterpiece – it’s absolutely not, and there are plenty of criticisms to be made of it.
The big one is that it can obscure things on your screen, including both movies and games. That’s obviously far from ideal, and because Apple hasn’t yet managed to secrete the front-facing cameras and sensors under the display, there’s no way around it.
And what about if you have more than one item in the Dynamic Island? In that case, the items can get shrunk down – or simply not appear at all. Apple’s cutout can hold two apps at a time (one large and one small), and while you can swipe across to expand or minimize its contents, you can’t have any more than that. Anything else simply isn’t shown.
While I can understand these frustrations, they’re not enough to put me off the Dynamic Island. For one thing, I don’t watch movies on my phone very often, so the obstruction isn’t particularly noticeable day to day.
For another, I know that the Dynamic Island is necessary right now. Apple hasn’t been able to hide things like the Face ID sensor array under the display – while it supposedly will soon, the feature is evidently not ready for prime time yet.
Some of the best Android phones have tiny cutouts, sure, but their facial recognition tech is either inferior to Apple’s or missing altogether. I’d rather have Face ID and a Dynamic Island than no facial recognition and a less secure device.
In the future, it looks like Apple is going to eliminate the Dynamic Island to provide a smoother, less obstructed display. I’m sure this will look amazing, going on what Android manufacturers have managed so far at least.
When that happens, it will be fascinating to see what happens to the Dynamic Island’s functionality. I’m sure Apple will think up something intriguing, just as it did with the Dynamic Island itself.
Perhaps Tim Cook and friends will give us a device that works as an all-screen phone most of the time, but that adds a Dynamic Island-like pill to store active app features such as timers.
But as long as the Dynamic Island remains on my iPhone, I’m super happy with it. It’s a halfway measure, sure, but a functional and beautiful one nonetheless.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
