I got an iMac recently and really like how the glass front wraps all the way from side-to-side except for the aluminum base that reaches all the way across the bottom. To me this was a big improvement over both the previous iMac and the all-glass fronts of the 24" LED display.
This got me thinking that the same design concept of having a small horizontal aluminum base supporting wraparound glass could be applied to the laptops with acceptable results. My crude mockup is below. What do you people think?
Personally I've never liked the all-black all-glass bezel of the unibody MacBooks as it seems aesthetically incongruous with the aluminum base. I got the matte option on my MBP partly because of this. It's also bugged me that the MacBook/MBP screen assemblies have extra extensions at the bottom corners that go lower than the screen bezel. This is to keep the bezel the same width all the way around the screen while sitting above the hinge, but the screen assembly has to drop to the bottom of the hinge so the lid can cover the whole computer when closed. The result is that each of the lower corners actually show two rounded corners – one from the bezel and one from the screen assemblies.
Replacing the bottom bezel/frame area with an aluminum base as in the iMacs might solve the above problems. It would make the screen seem more integrated with the rest of the computer design while solving the issue of how to deal with the bottom corners. It would also unify design cues across the all-in-one and portable lines.
This got me thinking that the same design concept of having a small horizontal aluminum base supporting wraparound glass could be applied to the laptops with acceptable results. My crude mockup is below. What do you people think?
Personally I've never liked the all-black all-glass bezel of the unibody MacBooks as it seems aesthetically incongruous with the aluminum base. I got the matte option on my MBP partly because of this. It's also bugged me that the MacBook/MBP screen assemblies have extra extensions at the bottom corners that go lower than the screen bezel. This is to keep the bezel the same width all the way around the screen while sitting above the hinge, but the screen assembly has to drop to the bottom of the hinge so the lid can cover the whole computer when closed. The result is that each of the lower corners actually show two rounded corners – one from the bezel and one from the screen assemblies.
Replacing the bottom bezel/frame area with an aluminum base as in the iMacs might solve the above problems. It would make the screen seem more integrated with the rest of the computer design while solving the issue of how to deal with the bottom corners. It would also unify design cues across the all-in-one and portable lines.
