Four years ago today, Apple unveiled the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, introducing Dynamic Island and bringing one of the most significant changes to the front of the iPhone since the arrival of Face ID.
Announced on September 7, 2022, the iPhone 14 Pro lineup replaced the familiar display notch with two cutouts for the TrueDepth camera system and Face ID hardware. Rather than attempting to hide the area entirely, Apple turned it into a software feature called Dynamic Island, allowing alerts, ongoing activities and controls to expand fluidly around the camera hardware.
According to Apple’s announcement from the day, Dynamic Island was designed to adapt in real time for notifications and activities, while allowing users to interact with ongoing tasks including music, timers, Maps directions and calls.
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max were also the first iPhones to feature an Always-On display. A new display architecture allowed the refresh rate to fall as low as 1Hz, keeping the Lock Screen, widgets and other information visible while reducing power consumption.
Photography received another major upgrade. Apple introduced its first 48-megapixel Main camera on an iPhone, using a quad-pixel sensor that could combine pixels for improved performance in lower light while also enabling high-resolution ProRAW photography. The new Photonic Engine extended Apple’s computational photography processing across the camera system.
The Pro models were powered by the A16 Bionic chip, separating them from the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, which continued with a version of the previous-generation A15 Bionic. Apple also added Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite across the wider iPhone 14 family.
The iPhone 14 Pro launched in space black, silver, gold and deep purple, with storage options ranging from 128GB to 1TB. UK pricing started at £1,099 for the iPhone 14 Pro and £1,199 for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Pre-orders began on September 9 before both models arrived on September 16.
The same event also saw Apple introduce the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, alongside a new Apple Watch lineup and second-generation AirPods Pro.
Dynamic Island would go on to become one of the defining features of the iPhone 14 Pro generation, combining a necessary area of display hardware with software animations and controls rather than treating the camera cutout simply as unused screen space.