Updated October 26 with details on how iPhone display technology could change the iPhone’s design in a different way.

Next September, the iPhone will look noticeably different, if a new report is correct. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is predicted to have a smaller cutout, called Dynamic Island, on the screen. And a new report now claims that Apple is considering changing the technology used in the display on the iPhone to match that on the Apple Watch.

The report from Korean website The Elec says that after changing the nature of the display on the watch in the latest iteration, the Apple Watch Series 10, a similar change is being considered and “will also be applied to the iPhone in the future.”

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The latest watch uses LTPO3, which is different from the type of LTPO used on previous watches. “Apple announced on its website that the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) LTPO TFT technology applied to the Apple Watch 10 series is LTPO3,” the report said in a machine-translated version.

So just as Apple took the LTPO OLED display from the Apple Watch Series 4 and applied it to the iPhone 13 three years later, the company could make the same change for the iPhone.

It is not certain that this would arrive in time for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it is not impossible. Although it took three years for Watch technology to go from smartwatch to iPhone, note that Apple applied it to the entire iPhone lineup. It’s entirely possible that the new technology could arrive on the Pro iPhone first, perhaps as soon as 2025. We’ll see.

As for the new design, it is reported by analyst Jeff Pu, as reported by Joe Rossignol on MacRumors. The adoption of something called a metal lens means that Apple can shrink the part of the front of the screen that is taken up by the front camera and Face ID technology.

As you know, Dynamic Island is the term Apple uses for the way the screen around the cutout shrinks, grows and changes shape to add extra information to the home screen, for example to display album art when playing music or flight information from the brilliant Flighty app while waiting to board a plane.

Interestingly, Pu says the change will only come to the iPhone 17 Pro Max, not the smaller iPhone 17 Pro. This seems surprising, but if true, it will be a break with tradition.

While there have been differences on the back of the iPhone, such as camera capabilities, the Pro and Pro Max have always looked largely identical until now. Less of a surprise is the news that this change will not be for the regular iPhone 17 models.

If you don’t know what a metal lens is, you’re not alone. MacRumor explains it this way: “While a traditional iPhone camera has curved lenses that redirect light toward the image sensor, a metal lens is a thin and flat lens with microscopic patterns etched on it that can focus light more precisely. In his research note this month, Pu no specific details on how Apple plans to use a metal lens for the Face ID system, nor did he explain how the change would result in a slimmer Dynamic Island.”

The new report doubles down on the information Pu had offered earlier in the year, suggesting that Apple’s plan has been consistent and is still moving in the same direction.

Pu has a strong record of accuracy, so while I still think the introduction of a design change for the Pro Max that leaves the Pro out in the cold surprises me, it’s a report worth taking seriously.

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