I might not need to buy the iPhone 14 Pro to get rid of the notch

We're pretty certain that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are going to lose the divisive notch, with a hole-punch design more like that of the Samsung Galaxy S21. But they might not be the only iPhone 14 models to say no to the notch. The normal iPhone 14 might get a hole punch display too.

According to MacRumors, the panels for the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and the 6.8-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max will be LPTO OLED displays from Samsung and LG. Samsung will provide all the panels for the iPhone 14 Pro, while some of the panels for the iPhone 14 Pro Max will be made by LG. All of those panels will be hole-punched rather than notched, which means more of the display will be visible and usable.

But there's also an interesting nugget in the story: "if yields are good, all iPhone models in 2022 could feature the same notchless design."

Buenas Notchless

That's pretty exciting: if Apple can get enough iPhone 14-sized notchless panels without encountering quality control issues, the entire iPhone 14 range will no longer have the notch (there are apparently no plans for an iPhone 14 version of the iPhone 13 mini). 

The only possible fly in the ointment here, panel production aside, is physical space. If there's no notch, the Face ID sensor needs to go somewhere else – and both the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max are bigger than the standard iPhone, so there's more room for components. The standard iPhone 14 may be more difficult to change. I like to imagine Apple's engineers are playing a very intricate kind of telephone Tetris with their iPhone 14 prototypes right now, and I hope they win.