Here's your first look at iPhone 16 Pro — Stunning concept shows off a rumored Dynamic Island redesign and a mystery button

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

The iPhone 16 Pro could be in for a display upgrade.

iPhone 16 Pro render
(Image credit: @Concept_Central)

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups might have only been on sale for a few months, but Apple's attention has already turned to what will become the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. Set to be announced this coming September, the new phones are beginning to leak as Apple's supply chain partners begin to learn more about what they will be building over the coming months. Now, a new render has shown us what the best iPhone of the bunch could look like.

Rumors surrounding the new iPhones have been cropping up for a little while now, with one capturing the attention more than most. That rumor claims that the iPhone 16 Pro will be the first to switch away from the Dynamic Island configuration we're familiar with today, replacing it with a new design that will see the Face ID technology placed beneath the display for the first time.

If that does indeed happen, the only hole in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max displays will be for the front-facing camera, creating a hole-punch design the likes of which we have only seen on Android phones so far. This new concept created by X user @concept_central imagines what that might look like.

A smaller Dynamic Island

The concept, created in collaboration with AppleTrack, sees the familiar iPhone 15 Pro design replaced with something new. The central hole-punch design is a more minimalist approach to matters, although we can still expect the Dynamic Island's software magic to remain — albeit with more physical space available for Apple and app developers to work with when creating their software.

Rumors of the iPhone 16 Pro switching to a hole-punch camera have been floating around for a while, especially since leaker Majin Bu claimed as much back in November of 2023. However, display analyst Ross Young had previously suggested that we would have to wait until the iPhone 17 Pro for such a change, so it's currently up in the air as to which route Apple will take.

All the buttons you could need

Another aspect of the rumor cycle that this concept shows off is claims of a new, unconfirmed button being added to the mix. Rumors of a so-called "Capture Button" have suggested that both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models will gain it, while the iPhone 15 Pro's Action Button is also likely to remain. What the button will be for remains to be seen, and it's also possible that it will be canned before the new iPhones arrive on store shelves later this year. If it does arrive, the button could well be used to quickly and easily capture videos and photos — hence the name.

Overall, the look of the iPhones shown in this concept is something that will no doubt appeal to plenty of people, including the slightly warmer Natural Titanium finish that is more yellow than the one currently offered on Apple's Pro iPhones.

With 2024 only having just gotten started we can expect to see much more in terms of rumors and leaks relating to the new iPhones as the months progress. Apple has bigger fish to fry before we get that far, however, with the Vision Pro headset now rumored to be ready for market as soon as the end of January. We're also expecting Apple to launch new iPads before the iPhones debut in September, too.

More from iMore

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.