In brief: Apple's latest iPhone innovation is likely here to stay. In a recent tweet, display industry expert Ross Young said he expects the Dynamic Island to ship on all models of the iPhone 15 next year. The feature debuted earlier this month exclusively on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The Dynamic Island is more or less an interactive notch. Instead of a static cutout for the front-facing camera and Face ID sensor, it's a pill-shaped area that automatically resizes to display notifications, alerts and other activity.
As Nilay Patel from The Verge highlighted in his review of the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple developed a dynamic sub-pixel anti-aliasing system that makes the edges of the Island up to three times sharper than all other animations in iOS. This was done to make the Island feel more like a hardware innovation than a software trick - almost like a secondary display - and based on early reviews, it seems to be effective. The illusion is said to work best indoors as bright light reveals the sensors behind the Island.
Not very many apps support the Dynamic Island right now, but that should change over time seeing as Apple has made the system available to third-party developers through its Live Activities API that is coming in iOS 16.1.
Young also said he is not expecting Apple's ProMotion display tech to find its way to standard iPhones next year due to ongoing supply chain issues. The adaptive refresh rate tech can automatically adjust the screen's refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on what is being displayed, either to improve fluidity or to reduce power consumption.
Apple's iPhone 14 went on sale on September 16 from $799. The iPhone 14 Pro with the Dynamic Island starts at $999; If you want the larger iPhone 14 Pro Max, be prepared to shell out a minimum of $1,099. Both ship with the new A16 Bionic chip, an always-on display and a new 48-megapixel rear camera.