Thank you Apple: For making the rMBP bezel thinner

[shurcooL]

I just want to point out what seems to be an unnoticed and underappreciated feature of the new rMBP.

If you compare it with the older non-Retina 15" MBP, they've kept the exact same screen size (15.4"), but the bezel has gotten smaller and this means the laptop's base dimensions became smaller too.

It went from 14.35 by 9.82 inches to 14.13 by 9.73 inches.

Not a huge difference, but it's still a step in the right direction and I want to point it out and applaud it.

It annoys me to no end the pattern in the last few years where newer laptops are being made with increasingly huge bezels (instead of trimming them). Bezels on laptops serve no useful purpose whatsoever (it's not a tablet where you can grab it by the bezel). It's so bad that many of today's laptops have bezels thicker than ones from 10-15 years ago.

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It's important to understand that they've reduced the bezel size (and therefore the laptop base size) without compromising the existing screen size, keyboard size, and trackpad size (and speakers, etc.). That's the whole point.

Making a laptop smaller by reducing the screen size is a different ballgame altogether, and it poses tradeoffs. Making just the bezel smaller is win-win.

 

[shurcooL]

It's funny, it seems I forgot to offend lots of people like in the other thread so it doesn't share the same popularity levels lol.

 

[Xcelerate]

People aren't happy if they don't have something to complain about.

 

[ToniqR]

I'm with you on this one too. Companies these days are obsessed with how thin they can make their device, but to fit everything in it means increasing the length and width.

This retina MacBook pro finally shows real progress by making it smaller in EVERY dimension whilst still increasing performance.

 

[Adidas Addict]

Great move the thin bezel. Have you seen the HUGE bezel Sony have put on their new T11 and T13 ultrabooks? Hilarious.

 

[Snesley Wipes]

I just want to point out what seems to be an unnoticed and underappreciated feature of the new rMBP.

If you compare it with the older non-Retina 15" MBP, they've kept the exact same screen size (15.4"), but the bezel has gotten smaller and this means the laptop's base dimensions became smaller too.

It went from 14.35 by 9.82 inches to 14.13 by 9.73 inches.

Image

Image

Not a huge difference, but it's still a step in the right direction and I want to point it out and applaud it.

It annoys me to no end the pattern in the last few years where newer laptops are being made with increasingly huge bezels (instead of trimming them). Bezels on laptops serve no useful purpose whatsoever (it's not a tablet where you can grab it by the bezel). It's so bad that many of today's laptops have bezels thicker than ones from 10-15 years ago.

----------

It's important to understand that they've reduced the bezel size (and therefore the laptop base size) without compromising the existing screen size, keyboard size, and trackpad size (and speakers, etc.). That's the whole point.

Making a laptop smaller by reducing the screen size is a different ballgame altogether, and it poses tradeoffs. Making just the bezel smaller is win-win.

They design the bezel size around what they need the base size to be. If the base needed more space to accomodate the componentry, the bezel would be larger and vice-versa.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Great move the thin bezel. Have you seen the HUGE bezel Sony have put on their new T11 and T13 ultrabooks? Hilarious.

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Holy hell.

 

[ixodes]

Great move the thin bezel. Have you seen the HUGE bezel Sony have put on their new T11 and T13 ultrabooks? Hilarious.

Disclaimer: The following comment is _not_ directed at you personally, because hundreds of posts before this one, contained the same point...


Why is it, that Apple worshipers, cannot say something positive, without bashing the competition?

There's something in a fanboys DNA that leads to gross insecurity... thus bashing another brand (Samsung, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Sony, etc) makes them feel so good.

Sad, very sad. Why not just celebrate the good things that Apple does without ruining the post by going negative....



Personally when I see or experience a good move, a nice design, an improvement in functionality by Apple I celebrate it!

And do you know what? I don't even think about trashing another brand.

 

[leenak]

I don't know, I've been using a Sony for 3 years and I'm glad to ditch it. It has been nothing but a headache, from my own personal experience, I'd say stay far away. Now I have to figure out what to do with my 3 laptops. 1 is going to my husband, other to sell (I think) and then one to keep I am extremely happy with my rMBP.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Great move the thin bezel. Have you seen the HUGE bezel Sony have put on their new T11 and T13 ultrabooks? Hilarious.

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And probably if they kept that screen size, the keyboard would be too small, since it is an ultrabook.

Most laptops have much thinner bezels, even ones from walmart.

 

[mackmgg]

It's still slightly bigger than the pre-unibody MacBook Pro, which is 14.1" by 9.6".

 

[warghh]

Just wanted to show you what an entire cohort across a state of Australia got:

 

[Vctr]

Just wanted to show you what an entire cohort across a state of Australia got:

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And like someone mentioned above ... the reason why the bezel is so thick is so that they could fit in a comfortable keyboard there. You'll notice that there is absolutely no room on the sides of that keyboard. Imagine if the keyboard deck was the same size of the screen itself.

 

[deannnnn]

I like that the bezel is smaller, but I wish it still had 'MacBook Pro' printed on the inside!

 

[shurcooL]

They design the bezel size around what they need the base size to be. If the base needed more space to accomodate the componentry, the bezel would be larger and vice-versa.

And like someone mentioned above ... the reason why the bezel is so thick is so that they could fit in a comfortable keyboard there. You'll notice that there is absolutely no room on the sides of that keyboard. Imagine if the keyboard deck was the same size of the screen itself.

Okay, using that logic, start with a certain base size that gives you the right space for internals and keyboard. Now, why not put the largest possible screen that fits in the screen lid, and minimize the space wasted on bezel?

There is no excuse for making the bezel larger on a laptop. The only reason they're there is because of technical limitations. If we had no such limitations, the screen would go all the way to the edge. After all, everyone prefers to be looking at pixels rather than a static bezel.

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I like that the bezel is smaller, but I wish it still had 'MacBook Pro' printed on the inside!

I actually like that it's missing, less distractions. (I know that it's not a large distraction, but still... I don't need it to say MacBook Pro to know it is one; plus there's a large Apple logo on the back if you want to show off.)

 

[shurcooL]

Ok, let's travel down the memory lane in the field of laptop screen bezels just for fun.

At first, there were severe technical limitations (mainly how big the screen could be) so the bezels were huge.

Here's a laptop from circa 1995, the bezels have gotten much smaller.

By 1999, laptops were so advanced that their bezels were extremely narrow. This was before the webcams (built into the screen lid) became popular, so they were able to get 'em really thin.

This is a Sony PCG-F290, packing a Pentium II 400 MHz. It probably represents the pinnacle of laptop screen bezels: the thinnest they've ever gotten.

This is a laptop from 13 years ago. Take that in. Sure, the screen lids have gotten webcams built-in since then, but do they really warrant how huge the bezels have gotten? Seems like negative process to me.

Here's a typical laptop from today.

It's clear where 13 years of advances in laptop design have gone into... Not!

 

[eron]

Great for pointing this out! That explains why the speaker grill/holes are thinner.

People like to pin point and complain. There's not enough praise going around!!
Be thankful people! (Addressing life in general).

 

[Penooker]

I couldn't let a discussion about bezel thinness go without a mention of one of my favorite laptops:

 

[Adidas Addict]

Disclaimer: The following comment is _not_ directed at you personally, because hundreds of posts before this one, contained the same point...


Why is it, that Apple worshipers, cannot say something positive, without bashing the competition?

There's something in a fanboys DNA that leads to gross insecurity... thus bashing another brand (Samsung, Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Sony, etc) makes them feel so good.

Sad, very sad. Why not just celebrate the good things that Apple does without ruining the post by going negative....



Personally when I see or experience a good move, a nice design, an improvement in functionality by Apple I celebrate it!

And do you know what? I don't even think about trashing another brand.

I agree, and the only reason the new T Series Vaio was in my mind when bezels were mentioned is that I was going to buy one until I saw the bezel.

 

[lannisters4life]

I like that the bezel is smaller, but I wish it still had 'MacBook Pro' printed on the inside!

Why? Do you forget which computer you have?

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Do you forget which computer you have?

Yeah, i forget it.

 

[eron]

I couldn't let a discussion about bezel thinness go without a mention of one of my favorite laptops:

It's great you like the TrackPoint. I never did.

 

[Penooker]

It's great you like the TrackPoint. I never did.

Yep, I loved the TrackPoint. It was my preferred pointing device until Apple's large multi-touch trackpads came out. I still think they are very good, especially in tight spaces or small laptops.

 

[ixodes]

I couldn't let a discussion about bezel thinness go without a mention of one of my favorite laptops

Because I've always worked in a cross platform environment, and often use company supplied laptops, I too have a certain fondness for ThinkPads, that goes way back to the 600X.

Using a trackpoint is an acquired skill. In my case a skill I had no choice but to learn, since back then the only laptops used within our corporation were ThinkPads. Once one becomes accustomed to a very accurate trackpoint as implemented by IBM ThinkPads (now Lenovo) it's as accurate and nice as using a mouse. I have thousands upon thousands of hours using a trackpoint and find them comfortable, fast and very useful.

That said, as soon as the PowerBook 100 series was released I bought one of those and thus began my use of both a Mac & PC. Responsible for influencing the decision makers, once a PowerBook was powerful enough to do some of the work we do, I brought my own into work, gave a demo and convinced them to add PowerBooks to the list of approved computers. Fast forward to today, where the company supplies both MacBook Pro's and ThinkPads, giving each of us that work in engineering a choice. A great solution.

Today I like nothing better than the wonderful MBP trackpad, combined with lots of keyboard shortcuts, I can operate very efficiently.

When it comes to bezel width, I'm not picky, as aesthetics are always secondary to functionality in my list of preferences. Yet that said, thin bezels as featured on many top of the line ThinkPads are quite attractive. Actually the bezel on my 17" MBP is very nice as well.

 

[dusk007]

Samsung started that thin bezel trend in the modern lines.

That with 16:10 would be even better.

A bit of bezel on the top with the camera okay. But at the side the screen shouldn't require more than 3 mm. That way the dimensions of the notebooks shrink. 15.6 is already too wide for some bags. A 15.4 with a thin bezel on the other hand can fit where only a much smaller 14" 16:9 works.