Hours before the September 9 keynote, Bloomberg reported that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max shrink the Dynamic Island and let it juggle three Live Activities instead of two, the limit since the cutout arrived on the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022. No measurement came with the report. Earlier rundowns, last week's iPhone Ultra event preview among them, put the cut at about 35 percent, and Apple settles it at 10 a.m. Pacific.
The island has been a two-slot device for four years: one task expanded, one tucked into a dot. iOS 27 already loosened it, adding Live Activities in the island's landscape mode as one of the 250 changes in iOS 27, and the smaller pill on the Pros is the hardware half of the same push. Nobody involved treats the cutout as permanent: the goal remains under-display Face ID and no island at all, which AppleInsider pegs at 2027 at the earliest.
The rest of the Pro report matches the week's leaks: the A20 Pro on TSMC's 2 nm process, longer battery life, a better vapor chamber, and a mechanical aperture on the main camera that may stay exclusive to the Pro Max. Colors: a burgundy red replacing Cosmic Orange, plus sky blue and silver.
Three live tasks is where a glanceable strip starts turning into a dashboard, and the island's whole trick was showing one state at a time. I'd take the smaller cutout over the third slot, and I expect the third slot to be a party trick. iPhoners on a 17 Pro get the software half of this with iOS 27 anyway; the pixels are the part you buy.
