MacBook Pro Display With Notch Shown in Alleged Photo Leak

The main problem with a notch is that the menu bar changes height depending on your selected screen resolution. A notch would potentially poke through the bottom of a display set to high resolution and the menu bar could peek below the notch on a display set to a low resolution. The only non-ugly way to deal with this problem is to have the menu bar always be 74 pixels high no matter what the display resolution is set to.
 
woocintosh said:
The notch didn't mean we lost part of the screen. Originally there were no screens. We get more screens in the space on either side of the notch.
Click to expand...
Hmmmmm… Maybe you’re onto something there.

What if the notch doesn’t cut into the menu bar at all? What if that extra space on the sides of the notch is where they will put the Apple menu (i.e. About This Mac, etc.) on the left side, and on the right they put the Time, Control Center, and other things? Then if the notch is present, it would be in the middle of the left and right side, but underneath the notch we would find the regular Menu bar with the rest of the items? Spacing sounds like a nightmare to have such a large space to just have the Apple Menu on the left side though.
 
ValSalva said:
The main problem with a notch is that the menu bar changes height depending on your selected screen resolution. A notch would potentially poke through the bottom of a display set to high resolution and the menu bar could peek below the notch on a display set to a low resolution. The only non-ugly way to deal with this problem is to have the menu bar always be 74 pixels high no matter what the display resolution is set to.
Click to expand...
Yup, it’s a pretty trivial software issue. Just freeze the menu bar.
 
Mayo86 said:
Hmmmmm… Maybe you’re onto something there.

What if the notch doesn’t cut into the menu bar at all? What if that extra space on the sides of the notch is where they will put the Apple menu (i.e. About This Mac, etc.) on the left side, and on the right they put the Time, Control Center, and other things? Then if the notch is present, it would be in the middle of the left and right side, but underneath the notch we would find the regular Menu bar with the rest of the items? Spacing sounds like a nightmare to have such a large space to just have the Apple Menu on the left side though.
Click to expand...
That would be a horrible UI tbh. Most people hover to the screen boundary to access menu items.
 
leman said:
Brand recognizability is important. Nowadays when everybody copies Apple, a more aggressive, unique look goes a long way to differentiate a product. That was also probably one of the main reasons behind the Touch Bar - to give the Mac a feature others couldn’t easily copy. A notch would fulfill a similar purpose, but is much cheaper to implement, and if done right, could even be elegant.

Again, I would happily take an increase in my screen real estate without changing the laptop size if it means the camera module is in my menu bar. What’s the practical problem with this solution?
Click to expand...
Again, they aren’t doing it for branding or marketing purposes. If it was possible to hide the sensors under the display they would do that. They don’t want the notch there.

The ‘brand recognisability’ thing is a coincidence of the notch, not because if it. That’s an argument used by people to justify it. Apple not once has said it was iconic or referred to it as such in any way. It is a temporary design compromise because they have no other choice right now than to have it there if they want thinner bezels.

When it becomes technically possible to hide sensors under the display they are going to implement it that way. There have already been numerous patents reported with solutions to hide all the sensors. The brand recognition argument will go out of the window when that happens.
 
Last edited:
Superhappytree said:
Again, they aren’t doing it for branding or marketing purposes. If it was possible to hide the sensors under the display they would do that. They don’t want the notch there.

The brand recognisability thing is a coincidence of the notch, not because if it. That’s an argument used by people to justify it. Apple not once has said it was iconic or referred to it as such in any way. It is a temporary design compromise because they have no other choice right now than to have it there if they want thinner bezels.
Click to expand...
This is a lot of assuming, being presented as fact.
 
Shirasaki said:
View attachment 1867472
Sure, looks pretty empty to me heh.
Mind you I am using zoomed out resolution. Otherwise the top would be even more cramped and half of the Chrome menu would cut out lots of menubar icons.
Just for the heck of it, this is how it looks like by default.
View attachment 1867473
Click to expand...

Well, sorry, you are a bit of an extreme case. This is almost an abuse of status icons :D

But jokes aside, in rhis case I would simply black out the top part, and put your menu under the notch. You would effectively get a slightly thicker top bezel, like current Macs do. This would also be quite unobtrusive.

For majority of users who don’t have crazy status menus like you, moving the menu into the top bezel wozld actually make a lot of sence.
 
Superhappytree said:
Again, they aren’t doing it for branding or marketing purposes. If it was possible to hide the sensors under the display they would do that. They don’t want the notch there.

The ‘brand recognisability’ thing is a coincidence of the notch, not because if it. That’s an argument used by people to justify it. Apple not once has said it was iconic or referred to it as such in any way. It is a temporary design compromise because they have no other choice right now than to have it there if they want thinner bezels.
Click to expand...
I agree with all of this 100%. The sad part is, Apple is still way behind on the bezel curve. I'm used to displays with 88-92%+ screen to body ratio...and they don't have a notch. I'll never go back.
 
TheYayAreaLiving said:
If you are looking at a bigger screen on a laptop it will be noticeable. For sure! 100%
Click to expand...
not really because the percentege is less and less on a bigger display
Think about the dimensions of the iphone notch on a 160" TV
The smaller display the more proeminent the notch is and take away the display
So the notch on the iphones is the most noticeable , and on the other end it will the notch on the 16"
 
Alan Turing said:
I agree with all of this 100%. The sad part is, Apple is still way behind on the bezel curve. I'm used to displays with 88-92%+ screen to body ratio...and they don't have a notch. I'll never go back.
Click to expand...
Apple is not behind the curve. The benchmarks you used have compromises in other aspects. Not a fair comparison at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top