Take a good look at the new iPhone 14 Pro Face ID cutout: Apple will make you stare at it for years!

You can argue about whether the iPhone is “the best phone in the world”, whether it’s innovative enough, or if iOS is as customizable as it should be. However, one thing that stands no argument is that you know an iPhone when you see it. No matter if it’s on or off, or whether you’re looking at its front, back, or, frankly, even sides…

For many years, up until 2017, the honor of helping the iPhone stand out went to a few key features and design elements:

• The home button on the front
• The Apple logo on the back
• iOS and its grid of app icons
• The iconic iPhone ringtone?!

Then, pushed by the urge for innovation (and profit?) Apple decided to do away with one of the features that made the iPhone look like an iPhone (perhaps the most important one)...

The home button was retired in 2017, at least on Apple’s flagship lineup, to make way for the iPhone X and its home button-less, chin-less display. But at this point, the home button wasn’t just an iPhone design element and Apple’s preferred method of UI navigation… It was also the key to your iPhone.

Touch ID has been enjoying a long and happy existence ever since it debuted on the iPhone 5S in 2013, and it was and still is (rightfully) loved by millions. But it was quite literally part of the iPhone’s home button, so… adiós, muchachos. Collateral damage.

To cut my nerdy novel short, of course, that’s how the iconic and, more importantly, Face ID-enabled, skateboard ramp-like notch came about. I believe by now we all know how Face ID works, so I won’t bore you with that intel.

What’s somewhat important to note, though, is that Apple’s decision to choose Face ID as the new iPhone unlocking solution over others was very… conscious. The alternatives at the time would’ve given the iPhone X a Touch ID button on the side/back, as under-display fingerprint readers weren’t a thing in 2017.

As you might’ve guessed, none of these alternative solutions would’ve worked for anything other than letting you unlock your phone. And that wasn’t extra enough for Apple. For one, the iPhone would’ve started to look very… Android-ish, but more importantly, none of the aforementioned hardware solutions would’ve been recognizable enough to perform the job of a free, walking marketing agency for the iPhone.

Apple gives iPhone 14 Pro a wide, centred pill-shaped cutout: How will the new Face ID system work?

Apparently, just days before the official launch of what we thought was supposed to be the iPhone 14 Pro, we find out that Apple’s decided to use software to fill in the space between the two new display cutouts on the iPhone 14 Pro series, making for one large but seamless pill-shaped cutout for Face ID (and not only).

According to leaked information shared with 9to5Mac and corroborated by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the space between the two cutouts will be used to show the privacy indicators that tell you when your iPhone’s microphone and camera are in use.

Currently, Cupertino places a very small orange dot in the upper-right corner of the display when an application is using your iPhone’s microphone. A green dot appears when an app is using your iPhone’s camera. On the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple will move these indicators and make them far more visible.



According to the same anonymous source, Apple’s idea is to make the privacy indicators for the camera and microphone more apparent, which is fully in line with Cupertino’s recent focus on privacy and security on iPhone.

The new notch replacement on iPhone 14 Pro: Next-gen Apple marketing (for sure), but does the new cutout look any better than the notch?

If you recall, initially, when that Jon Prosser leak came out almost a year ago, we were expecting the iPhone 14 Pro to look a lot like a Galaxy S22 - with a single punch hole cutout for the selfie camera. Then it became clear that this wasn’t going to happen, as Apple was unable to fit the Face ID sensors under the display of the iPhone, or God forbid to let go of the face unlocking system altogether, in favor of in-screen Touch ID.

So, it was  even “clearer” now that the iPhone 14 Pro would have to adopt two odd-looking cutouts in its display until this rumor was also put to bed when we found out about Apple’s idea to merge the two holes on the iPhone 14 Pro into one… bigger hole.

iPhone 14 Pro copies Huawei, but could Apple have gone all the way?

Anyway, call me crazy, but I’m not sure if I like the idea of a massive, pill-shaped cutout right in the middle of the iPhone 14 Pro’s screen... I’m also not sure if it’s better than having two disproportionate cutouts, although that might be because I got used to this image after looking at for for months now... The risks of the job. However, could the iPhone 14 Pro’s notch replacement have looked better, even if we accept that this is the route Apple was always going to take? Probably…

The phone nerds amongst you will remember the Huawei P40 Pro that we reviewed in 2020. If you remember the phone, you'll probably remember it came with a nearly identical pill-shaped cutout to that of the alleged iPhone 14 Pro.

For those wondering, yes, the Huawei P40 Pro also came with an advanced Face ID system (although not as complex as Apple’s). The difference is that Huawei's phone managed to fit the necessary sensors into what appears to be a smaller pill-shaped cutout than the one on the iPhone 14 Pro (at least according to the renders we’ve seen).

Regardless of the supposed size difference, Huawei’s cutout was tucked away in the left corner of the screen, which, in my humble opinion, makes it less of a bother. I voiced this humble opinion on Twitter, and many disagreed with the argument that this is “asymmetrical” (so, not very Apple).

Still, although I might be the minority here, I think Apple could be going a bit too far this time around... Tim Cook & Co consciously decided to trade the aesthetic design of the next-gen iPhone X in exchange for Face ID and the notch back in 2017, but right now, a big cutout in the middle of the iPhone 14 Pro’s screen seems even less futuristic. It's 2022.

iPhone 14, iPhone 15, iPhone 16: How long will the new punch hole stick around, and what and when is next for Apple's selfie camera and Face ID system?

See, the original iPhone X notch stuck around for four years until it was replaced by another, narrower, but slightly taller notch on the iPhone 13 series... Honestly, I never managed to wrap my head around Apple’s decision to shrink the notch on the iPhone 13 and then get rid of it a year later, but clearly, there’s some future planning involved in the mix.

Regardless, according to information from reliable analyst Ross Young, the vanilla iPhone 15 models are supposed to be “blessed” with the new pill-shaped cutout that’s coming to iPhone 14 Pro (but not iPhone 14). This means that all iPhone 15 models should look the same from the front.

But what about after that? Well, according to multiple sources, Apple’s big plan's always been to hide Face ID under the display. Whether this will happen gradually (under display Face ID and a punch-hole selfie camera) or all at once (under-display Face ID and selfie camera), we don’t know yet.

All that being said, in my view, Face ID isn’t the long-term future of smartphone security, as it should sooner or later make way for a more sophisticated method of unlocking, which we might see first on iPhone. But that’s a story for another time… Until then, see how you like your new notch solution on the iPhone 14 Pro, and tell me what you think about it in the comments!