iPhone 14 'Pill' Could Be Apple's Controversial Notch Fix
For years now, iPhones have sported a notch that carves out a space on edge-to-edge displays for front-facing sensors and cameras. While other manufacturers adopted notches of their own, it wasn't long before we saw many of them move on to other solutions, such as hole-punch and pill-sized cutouts. Now, with the iPhone 14, we're hearing that Apple may finally move away from the notch and onto something a little less obvious.
iPhone users have been wondering when the notch will go the way of the dodo, and even though we're moving in that direction, we're not quite there yet. The iPhone 13 lineup, for instance, shrunk the notch compared to previous iPhone models, but still uses one nonetheless. Could the iPhone 14 be the first iPhone to ditch the notch? Display Supply Chain Consultants CEO Ross Young seems to think it will be.
Image: SlashGear iPhone X Review
Young's prediction may not sit well with some of the Apple faithful. Instead of a hole or pill cutout to house the front-facing cameras and sensors, Young and the DSCC are predicting the iPhone 14 will have both. Young shared this prediction in a post to Twitter today, where he said that he expects both the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will sport this two-hole concept.
Image: SlashGear OnePlus Nord Review
Above you'll see an image of the OnePlus Nord from 2020. This device has a pill-shaped front cutout for two front-facing cameras like what Young describes below (though there about devices like the Huawei Mate X2). Apple's solution is rumored to be slightly different.
"The smaller hole will not be invisible," Young said. "The two hole concept will be unique to Apple, like the notch, not similar to all the pill models from Huawei." In a follow-up tweet, Young seems to suggest that Apple is going for a two-hole design to avoid accusations of copying Huawei, which uses pill-shaped cutouts in many of its own phones. It's worth noting that Apple may choose to selectively black out the pixels between the hole punch and pill cutout on OLED displays, thus making them look like one cutout instead of two distinct ones.
The DSCC isn't the first to predict that the iPhone 14 will ditch the notch, but it's safe to say that most of us weren't expecting the dual-cutout solution. As always, we should probably take these predictions with a grain of salt – while much about new iPhones is leaked before they're officially announced, there's still a long time to go between now and Apple's expected iPhone 14 reveal in September.
In other words, it's possible that details of these phones could change in the next 9 months, though it's also reasonable to expect that Apple has nailed down much of the design of the new iPhones as well. Even though we're still a long way out from the iPhone 14 reveal, the rumor mill has been churning, with reports suggesting that we might get new iPhones that don't have a rear camera bump.
One interesting thing to note is that on two separate occasions now, these hole-punch cutouts have only been rumored for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, suggesting that the two less expensive models will retain the notch. This may not be the year that iPhone abandons the notch entirely, but it could be the year we see Apple take the first major strides in that direction. Assuming no delays, we'll find out for sure in September, but we'll undoubtedly hear more rumors about these phones in the weeks and months to come.