TheiPhone 14 Proshipped with the world’s first Dynamic Island and it’s become a real feature for owners of that phone. Now, just a few months after the September 2022 launch of that iPhone, we have our first Android copycat. Enter, the Realme C55.
Now, to say that the Realme 55 has a Dynamic Island is unfair, because it doesn’t call it that - probably for fear ofAppleturning its lawyers onto it. No, this is the Mini Capusle. Although we can probably all just admit that it’s a Dynamic Island by another name. We’re all friends here.
It was always only going to be a matter of time before an Android phone maker got around to using the iPhone’s Dynamic Island as inspiration, and now it’s here. And it actually looks pretty good.
The Mini Capsule, as reported by 9to5Google, was unveiled as part of the overall Realme C55 package in Indonesia. But notably, there is just one hole-punch camera up there and it’s surrounded by software that makes it look like something much bigger. Apple does something similar of course, but the key difference is that Apple is trying to hide the selfie cameraandits Face ID biometric security system. It does a good job of it as well, but we’ll need to see the Realme C55 in action before we can be sure whether it’s as good or not.
The Mini Capsule does do much of the same stuff, though. Battery status and charging indicators are table stakes, but Realme is also going to add things like step counts and other fitness metrics in a future update. But whether Android developers will make apps that use theDynamic IslandMini Capsule properly or not, we’ll just have to wait and see.
That’s what makes the Dynamic Island so great of course. Live Activities mean that it can be used with any app that has been updated to support it, putting useful information at the top of the display and out of the way of other content. If things go the way we expect, developer support could be the real difference between the Mini Capsule and the Dynamic Island it’s so clearly based upon.
