With SwitchResX installed the notch is entirely gone. It looks exactly as if the machine was built in the old way with no notch and the camera above the screen. I wish I had a better camera.
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SwitchResX Removes the Notch Entirely
- Thread starter MK500
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Congratulations, you’ve lost screen real estate. I much prefer the way it is by default. I forget the notch exists.
I completely agree, and prefer to run with the notch. I just wanted to let the notch haters know this is possible; as we theorized it would be. And 100% compatible with all software.
What I selected in SwitchResX -> 1800x1125, 120 Hz HiDPI 16:10
Apple's "More Space" setting in Displays is equivalent to 1800x1169
Interestingly, SwitchResX doesn't seem to "see" the notch region of the screen. The highest non-HiDPI resolution in SwitchResX is actually 3024x1890, which is 74 pixels less than the actual screen resolution of 3024x1964. If you select this resolution you get the full resolution without the notch bar as well.
EDIT: This is incorrect; SwitchResX allows you to choose resolutions with OR without the notch area. So it does see the full region.
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That's interesting. So SwitchResX doesn't have the full resolution in its list - either 3024x1964 or 1512x982.
What does SwitchResX show is selected in the Current Resolutions tab when the mode is 3024x1964 or Looks Like 1512x982? Say at 60Hz.
Then another question I have about SwitchResX is how it handles the variable refresh rate mode. If you select the mode in the Displays preferences panel, what does SwitchResX show is selected in the Current Resolutions tab?
There is no extra “screen real estate”. It’s a 14 inch laptop. The notch was a design choice and is purely about aesthetics and marketing. Full stop. It’s OK to like the notch, but please don’t lie to yourselves about “screen real estate” as if there is some practical advantage. LOL. Full-screen apps even black out everything from the notch up.
There is an advantage. The menu bar wraps around the notch, so everything below it is usable space. If you move the menu bar down below the notch, it's eating into that usable space.
Intel 16" MBP: 3072x1920 (16:10)
M1 Pro/Max 16" MBP: 3456x2234 (16:10.34)
Why would Apple change the aspect ratio to a weird number like 16:10.34? Well, if we look at the 16:10 subset of that area, it's 3456x2160. The remaining 74 vertical pixels - the 0.34 - are the horizontal strip interrupted by a notch.
For many, many years Apple's been building 16:10 laptop displays with a "forehead" bezel strip up top to make room for the camera assembly. Now they have replaced most of the forehead with pixels, and it's simply factual to call these extra pixels or extra area.
(I'm using 16" numbers because there was no 14" Intel MBP for me to compare to. However, the 14" follows the same pattern of a fully usable 16:10 main display area plus an extra 74 pixel tall strip above it containing the notch.)
As @RossMacca says, there's very practical advantages. In windowed mode, you get more out of the 16:10 part of the display because the menu bar moves out of it and up into the extra pixels.
It's OK to hate the notch, but please don't lie to yourself about its characteristics and benefits.
Wrong. SwitchResX does not remove the notch but it disables the menu area and steals space from the main screen area to then put the mene are in! Very different!!
Actually you can choose the notch or notchless resolution with SwitchResX. So it is working properly. But my point with this thread is that it IS possible to easily force the new MacBook Pros to function as if Apple had decided not to do the notch design and instead had included a larger forehead for the camera as with all previous MacBooks. SwitchResX happens to be an easy way to do this.
Accurate; but the part you seem to miss about my post is "It looks exactly as if the machine was built in the old way with no notch and the camera above the screen."
I'm not trying to argue the notch or no notch. I'm just stating the fact that if someone does not like the notch design, it is quite easy to get rid of it entirely. So there is no functional downside to Apple including the notch design. And clearly Apple considered this possibility, since the screen below the top 74 pixels is exactly 16:10.
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It has 1512x945 without the notch, or 1512x982 with the notch.
It turns out SwitchResX DOES support the notch, so it's not a bug. There are two separate sections in the menu. One for resolutions with the notch, and one for without.
It's not that there are separate sections. It's just that they are sorted by aspect ratio. It's the same on any Mac including my old Mac Pro 2008 or Mac mini 2018.
What exactly are you using that incredible amount of space for? LOL. And there is ZERO extra space when you go full-screen. Literally none.
Like I said, you guys need to stop lying to yourselves. It was an aesthetic design choice. It no more provides “extra screen real estate” than the Apple logo on the back makes the laptop more aerodynamic.
Stop telling falsehoods! There is extra space when going full screen. If you move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen the menu will appear in the extra area. On a non notch macbook it will scroll the top of the full screen area down a bit to make space for this menu thus temporarily dropping the size of the usable area.
But I think it will be hard to convince you as you seem to be a typical entitled millennial who just joined this forum and thinks he is always right.
There physically is extra screen real estate with the notch, as has been pointed out. Albeit only taken advantage of in a windowed desktop. Full-screen apps black out the notch area for aesthetic reasons, though personally I’d be happy for them to black it out but keep the menus visible, seems a bit of a waste not to.
It’s not a huge amount, but removing the menu bar from the 16:9 display area of the screen and moving it up into the extra space added to accommodate the notch gives you the area of the screen it previously occupied to use.
Of course, that area could always be used by hiding the menu bar on the old displays. But the .2” added to accommodate the notch means that you get the full 16:9 screen area there always was, without having to hide the menu bar.
And obviously, if you still choose to hide the menu bar, you get to use that extra vertical screen space as well, albeit with a notch in the middle.
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Extra space is extra space. I never claimed it was "incredible".
Thanks for posting this! I have to use a scaled mode due to poor vision, and I also use a lot of development apps which have a large amount of menu items. That combination means the notch is basically always in the way for me, and the OS option "Scale to fit below built-in camera" gives me side bezels that reduce my screen size significantly.
This fix only adds virtual bezel back to the top of the screen, giving me a perfect 16:10 screen with no notch in the way of menubar items, and the MiniLED makes the notch basically disappear. Why Apple doesn't just add this as an option in display settings is beyond me.
If anyone wants a free menubar alternative to SwitchResX, https://github.com/avibrazil/RDM works for me as well. Simply pick a resolution with a slightly smaller vertical resolution (I'm using 1312x820 instead of 1312x848), resolutions with a lightning bolt by them are scaled.
This fix only adds virtual bezel back to the top of the screen, giving me a perfect 16:10 screen with no notch in the way of menubar items, and the MiniLED makes the notch basically disappear. Why Apple doesn't just add this as an option in display settings is beyond me.
If anyone wants a free menubar alternative to SwitchResX, https://github.com/avibrazil/RDM works for me as well. Simply pick a resolution with a slightly smaller vertical resolution (I'm using 1312x820 instead of 1312x848), resolutions with a lightning bolt by them are scaled.