Apple experimented with different notch designs before the Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island on the iPhone did not happen overnight. While iPhones stayed with the classic notch for several years, the company was actually experimenting with different ways of hiding the front-facing sensor behind the scenes. According to a report, there are several designs for the iPhone notch that Apple experimented with.

In another disappointing move, Apple managed to release an iPhone last year that was a carbon copy of the one that came before. The company released the iPhone 15 series, and the only real difference was the fact that the lower-end models received the Dynamic Island. In 2022, only the iPhone 14 Pro got the island. However, all of the lower-end iPhone 15 models got the island along with the iPhone 15 Pro (Review).

Apple experimented with different notch designs for the iPhone

Mac Rumors was able to discover how some of these experimental designs would have looked, and the publication recreated them. Before the Dynamic Island came about, Apple was experimenting with different notch designs.

The first one in the screenshot below looked rather alien. We see a notch at the top of the screen, but we also see what looks like a sideways notch on the right side of the screen. This would remind people of an Edge panel on Android phones. However, instead of harboring apps, this would show certain status icons like your screen brightness, network status, and battery.

The second image would look all too familiar if you’ve seen Android phones in the early days of the notch. Before the tear-drop notch and punch holes, some phones allowed you to hide the notch by turning off all of the top pixels on the screen. This would make it appear as though you’re watching an uninterrupted screen. It looks like this is something that Apple also experimented with.

Dynamic Island experiments

Apple also experimented with several versions of the Dynamic Island. Looking at the screenshot below, the first one will look familiar if you’ve seen some of the later rumors leading up to the iPhone 14 launch. Rumors speculated that Apple would have a pill-shaped cut-out similar to what you would see on the Samsung Galaxy S10 with a small circular cut-out right next to it. The second image shows a very large Dynamic Island that would have housed the volume indicator. That’s not how the island would have looked all the time. That would just be the expanded view.

The third one shows a large Dynamic Island housing all of the status icons like network status, volume, brightness, Etc. Finally, the last image shows what looks like the Dynamic Island with a current call icon.

It’s interesting to see how many different ideas Apple came up with before finally landing on what we have today. It only makes us more excited about what the company has planned for us for the future.