macOS Hides the Notch on New MacBook Pro in Full-Screen Mode

[UncleGuido]

Ohhh god, will the Apple Car also have Notches, e.g. Windshield Notch? 🤣

Almost all modern cars already have an area in the upper center of the windshield that is reserved and repurposed, obstructing a small part of the full view. It's called a rear view mirror. And there were probably people that complained when this device was introduced.

 

[Xenobius]

For all the people stuck with legacy vintage devices heres a new wallpaper so you can feel fancy.

You can use this as well:

 

[Janichsan]

Almost all modern cars already have an area in the upper center of the windshield that is reserved and repurposed, obstructing a small part of the full view. It's called a rear view mirror. And there were probably people that complained when this device was introduced.

The thing is just, as a driver, you don't look through the center of the windshield, but through the left half of it (or the right half for a handful of countries). So the mirror is usually at the periphery of your vision and not constantly right in your face.

But hey, respect for trying to defend this nonsense.

 

[Lounge Deluxe]

I'm in the market to replace my mid-2014 MBP but the notch keeps me from it unfortunately. The Dell 17" XPS I'm using for work has smaller bezels, a camera that supports Windows Hello and does not have a screen notch. If Dell can manage, then why can't Apple?

 

[tomtad]

iPad uses full screen apps so it's not a novelty

The iPad handles apps and multitasking in an entirely different way. Full screen on Mac is clunky at best and the whole window management is in need of an entire rethink.

 

[tomtad]

I'm in the market to replace my mid-2014 MBP but the notch keeps me from it unfortunately. The Dell 17" XPS I'm using for work has smaller bezels, a camera that supports Windows Hello and does not have a screen notch. If Dell can manage, then why can't Apple?

I think the general consensus is the webcam on those machines is awful although I will admit the notch Apple have used is excessively large for what is just a webcam. Just look at the notch on the iPhone 13 which contains a lot more technology and is smaller.

The notch could have easily fit within the existing height of the menu bar and should have been the design goal here.

 

[Xenobius]

If 2021 Dell XPS can come out with a almost no bezel laptop not sure why Apple can't..??

View attachment 1870762

They could do this but they need a space for the FaceID in next year model.

 

[Puonti]

The notch is only annoying when watching movies ...

The screen area below the notch / menu bar is 16:10 in aspect ratio, so the notch shouldn't intrude on movies in any commonly used aspect ratio.

I was thinking MacOS would, for now, keep the behavior the same in full screen in that you can't mouse up to the extra space, stopping at where the notch area begins.

How would you interact with the menu bar - which appears to the left and right of the notch - if you couldn't move the cursor into that space?

If you instead had the menu bar slide down below the notch, it would both look very odd and waste the extra screen space that has been added to the left and right of the notch. There's no technical reason that couldn't be done, but design-wise it sounds weird to me when in non-full-screen mode the same menu bar would appear level with the notch.

 

[8KYUP]

I was never a fan of the notch on iPhone (still am not) but this a clean solution with no drawbacks. So happy to have Apple making Pro mean something for once. These machines are beasts. I am very surprised (but delighted) that they went for heavier, thicker bodies to get to the performance that a lot of us had wish-listed.

Yes, I would prefer a 4th TB port, have no use for SD and would happily accept the most current HDMI but frankly, I am amazed that this power is available.

Bravo Apple!

 

[DeepIn2U]

Well you’d need a display as thick as an iPad Pro.

What? Are you saying a MBP to have FaceID need to include the cpu chipset and battery along with FaceID components just to be in the screen assembly?

no, it doesn’t.

 

[DeepIn2U]

The thing is just, as a driver, you don't look through the center of the windshield, but through the left half of it (or the right half for a handful of countries). So the mirror is usually at the periphery of your vision and not constantly right in your face.

But hey, respect for trying to defend this nonsense.

yet the car rear view mirror is not placed in front of your field of vision as in these new mbp’s. In a car it’s position off to your right side or left side depending on the region you’re driving a car in.

in a car it’s already placed in peripheral field of vision which is why you must turn your eyes or head to view into it, you don’t use your peripheral vision to look into the rear view mirror.

the camera in the new MBP is not peripheral field of view the human mind comes into play like in skim reading sentences. You don’t need each letter after years of reading to read the sentence, your brain picks up queues and figures out the worlds correctly. In reverse it’s ignoring the camera. For years now I. Laptop or VC. People don’t star into the camera often but to the general area of the camera.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I was never a fan of the notch on iPhone (still am not) but this a clean solution with no drawbacks. So happy to have Apple making Pro mean something for once. These machines are beasts. I am very surprised (but delighted) that they went for heavier, thicker bodies to get to the performance that a lot of us had wish-listed.

Yes, I would prefer a 4th TB port, have no use for SD and would happily accept the most current HDMI but frankly, I am amazed that this power is available.

Bravo Apple!

Agreed. Apple killed it !

Finally giving the 14” the full power of the 16” or top bench cpu or VERY close to it.

 

[Yaboze]

I wonder if they could add an option to add the fake bezel in non-full screen mode, removing the notch, although losing a little bit vertically.

 

[Pezimak]

Im sure they won't miss you in the slightest.

I doubt they will. But as they only have single digit global market share coming up with design decisions that pushes more customers away isn't very clever.

 

[8KYUP]

I wonder if they could add an option to add the fake bezel in non-full screen mode, removing the notch, although losing a little bit vertically.

I believe they would then need to lower the menu bar. Essentially, we have lost nothing with the new real estate. We have simply found some previously unused space to house the menu bar. That's all. It is truly all win once you put aside preconceived notch opinions (guilty myself).

 

[Pezimak]

So they (finally) remove the God-awful Touch Bar, but they slap this monstrosity onto their screens?

I'm starting to wonder if Apple isn't intentionally trying to gaslight its customers, yanking them to-and-fro until they all finally give up and give in. It's almost biblical how capricious they can be.

Poor old Tim Cook trying to pull a Steve Jobs' "I know what the people want" - except Steve actually had intuition and a healthy respect for Apple customers. As far as I'm concerned, to Tim, Apple customers are just cows waiting to be milked.

I mean, I never planned it this way, but there's probably a reason why I haven't bought a new Mac since before Steve died. Still happily running 32 and 64 bit apps on Mojave on 2010 model year laptop and desktop. Until Apple stops with the gimmicks, I don't find any compelling reasons to upgrade.

I have a 2010 model too but it's on its last legs a bit. I could spend the money on parts and revive it. I didn't buy a touchbar Mac because of the awfully keyboard issues, and I probably won't buy the new models because of that notch.

 

[Fabian90]

I'm in the market to replace my mid-2014 MBP but the notch keeps me from it unfortunately. The Dell 17" XPS I'm using for work has smaller bezels, a camera that supports Windows Hello and does not have a screen notch. If Dell can manage, then why can't Apple?

Because the Dell does not have Mini LED nor a camera of that quality.

 

[cheekypaul]

Look inward and ask yourself why you're so upset by the notch design. There must be a reason. Hint: the notch is not the problem.

The notch breaks symmetry, breaks what I feel a screen should be, and it genuinely turns my stomach. It looks wrong. It's ugly. There's no 'need' for it. It's also unloveable, unless you are it's parent.

Most defenders just say, I don't mind it, which is not 'inward' looking.

Share your feelings toward the notch.

 

[transpo1]

You are a sample size of one (1).

That's an anecdote, not evidence.

Power users agree with me. And— are you telling me you never use full screen mode on your Apple notebooks? I don’t know how you see anything 😉 or focus to get any work done.

 

[nutmac]

Pretty much any non-windowed game every released.

Non-windowed as in full screen? In full-screen, apps do not extend to the notch area.

 

[8KYUP]

The notch breaks symmetry, breaks what I feel a screen should be, and it genuinely turns my stomach. It looks wrong. It's ugly. There's no 'need' for it. It's also unloveable, unless you are it's parent.

Most defenders just say, I don't mind it, which is not 'inward' looking.

Share your feelings toward the notch.

I like it. Good use of currently unused space. It hides in Full Screen. Very functional.

 

[anson42]

If you instead had the menu bar slide down below the notch, it would both look very odd and waste the extra screen space that has been added to the left and right of the notch. There's no technical reason that couldn't be done, but design-wise it sounds weird to me when in non-full-screen mode the same menu bar would appear level with the notch.

It would be odd, I agree, but I'm just saying that full screen might keep its original behavior. I could be entirely wrong, and you can have the full screen menu in the notch area but it only appears if you mouse up there in the same way that the menu appears today in full screen and of course appearing in its own space.

 

[Janichsan]

Power users agree with me.

"Experts say you are wrong."

That statement is as worthless as yours. What power users? Where or when did they agree with you?

And— are you telling me you never use full screen mode on your Apple notebooks? I don’t know how you see anything 😉 or focus to get any work done.

No, I never use the full screen mode on my Apple notebook. My screen hasn't the size of a post stamp, I'm neither blind as a mole, nor do I have the attention span of an toddler on caffeine, so I can work just fine this way and don't get fatally distracted by a second window on my screen.

 

[Rizzm]

The black bezel in full screen seems like a waste. Keep the menu bar there if it's going to be filled with nothingness instead.

 

[anson42]

The black bezel in full screen seems like a waste. Keep the menu bar there if it's going to be filled with nothingness instead.

The menu may pop there if the mouse is moved up there instead of revealing down as it does today. Haven't seen a video of how full screen really works yet.