Apple iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max first look: Dynamic Island, 48-megapixel camera and improved display – all fuelled by the powerful A16 chip
- iPhone’s infamous notch is replaced by the ‘Dynamic Island’, a new software-hardware hybrid way of displaying information like Uber locations and sports scores
- Pixel-binning accommodates a huge camera upgrade, while the Always-On display is more visible in the sun. The new A16 chip blows Androids out of the water
The often-mocked iPhone notch – that black indentation above the display that has housed the top speaker, camera and facial recognition technology in recent models – is dead, at least in the top-end iPhones.
Released on September 16, 2022, in Hong Kong and around the world, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max introduce a new way to house Apple’s TrueDepth facial scanning system.
At first glance, it’s just a longer version of the hole-punch cut-out seen in virtually every Android phone, but while Android brands have always shied away from highlighting this screen “imperfection” (some try to hide it in marketing materials while others offer a digital bezel to hide the hole), Apple is embracing it by designing a new user interface around, and on, the cut-out.
Awkwardly named “Dynamic Island”, it is a new way to display contextual information, and Apple’s software uses digital black bars around the cut-out to make it appear to morph in size while doing so.
Play a song on Spotify, for example, and the island will show the album art on one side while a sonic visualisation bar thumps to the beat on the other. Start a timer, and the countdown clock shows up on the island. With third-party support, it will soon be able to show the location of your Uber ride, or a live sports score.
