The stand-out feature of the iPhone 14 Pro is its new lozenge-shaped notch, which facilitates the Dynamic Island UI. According to The Elec, however, Apple was concerned that these new OLED displays would be susceptible to moisture and oxygen thanks to the drilling process used in production, potentially reducing its longevity. This resulted in Apple intervening to insist that Samsung change its approach. Apparently, while Samsung initially favoured using laser-based technique, Apple asked its partner and rival to switch to a technique akin to inkjet printing in order to seal the edges of the drilled area. Handily, the equipment necessary for this inkjet approach was made by Semez, which is a subsidiary of Samsung. Samsung Display isn’t alone in producing OLED screens for the iPhone 14 Pro. The company’s local rival, LG Display, also chips in, and the report says that it took has adopted Apple’s production method for the iPhone 14 Pro screen. We were impressed with the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island in our 4.5-star review, calling it “a big improvement” over the classic notch. The various UI elements that morph out of this notch are extremely well integrated, though we look forward to Apple (and third party developers) taking it even further in future models. If we don’t see a string of Dynamic Island copycats in 2023 and 2024, we’ll be very surprised indeed.
