Will Next MacBooks have Notch? Dynamic Island?

[imdog]

It seemed Apple was trying to create a consistent design language across its devices by bringing the notch to the MacBook, but now the iPhone has ditched the notch in favor of the dynamic island. Do you think the next MacBooks will continue to have the notch? Switch to Dynamic Island? Include Face ID?

 

[wilberforce]

Wider notch and include FaceID.
Just my guess.
Dynamic Island will be considered as a distracting gimmick on a Mac

 

[tmoerel]

What notch?

 

[wilberforce]

What notch?

Yeah, mine used to have a notch, but it disappeared while using it.

 

[Gudi]

I bet the original plan was to include all the face tracking sensors behind the notch, but it failed for whatever reason. Especially now with Continuity Camera there's a good chance that FaceID will never come to the Mac. In that case the notch is way too large, but simply shrinking it won't be a better design either. So the notch is here to stay -- useless as it is -- until Apple has a better idea.

No change or improvement for the next three years.

 

[bobcomer]

Don't know, don't care. Macbooks aren't in my purchase zone. Way too heavy, notch, no way, no how.

 

[PauloSera]

It seemed Apple was trying to create a consistent design language across its devices by bringing the notch to the MacBook, but now the iPhone has ditched the notch in favor of the dynamic island. Do you think the next MacBooks will continue to have the notch? Switch to Dynamic Island? Include Face ID?

Err, no. The MacBook and MacBook Pro had similar needs as iPhone (slimmest possible bezels, maximized screen real estate, with a camera housing that needs to sit top center). And it just so happened that the middle of the menu bar on the Mac was (mostly) unused and wasted space. The choice to use part of that space for the camera housing made sense, while simultaneously getting rid of lots of unnecessary bezel. The end result is similar in appearance to the iPhone. But it is not a design language. It has a practical purpose and is the kind of thing that designed itself out of necessity, not because they want it to look a certain way.

 

[addamas]

I bet the original plan was to include all the face tracking sensors behind the notch, but it failed for whatever reason. Especially now with Continuity Camera there's a good chance that FaceID will never come to the Mac. In that case the notch is way too large, but simply shrinking it won't be a better design either. So the notch is here to stay -- useless as it is -- until Apple has a better idea.

No change or improvement for the next three years.

Thats right, they had idea but FaceID module is too much thick to be able to fit in lid of the laptop (MacBook). Not sure but it’s like 0,5cm of space, see comparison below.

 

[Gudi]

Thats right, they had idea but FaceID module is too much thick to be able to fit in lid of the laptop (MacBook). Not sure but it’s like 0,5cm of space, see comparison below.

Beyond mere engineering problems, there's the question if it's even a good idea. You can hold your phone at a slightly different angle when FaceID fails the first time around, but tilting your not even height-adjustable iMac or MacBook? And you have to double-press a special button to signal the system that you even want to be identified anyway. So why not just keep the TouchID button?

There is potential utility in features like Center Stage and Overhead Camera on the Mac. But for that you only need a wide-angle camera and face detection software, not necessary a LiDAR scanner and laser dot matrix emitter. Some of those more advanced sensors are only useful on a phone or a watch. MacBooks don't even have GPS. So why a distracting notch on a Mac, when you even hide it on a phone?

Despite its clumsiness Continuity Camera might be the best long-term solution for all your filming yourself tasks on a Mac. Just glue your phone on the back of your Mac, when you need it there. The notch is not even necessary and will eventually disappear, when a reasonably good iSight camera fits in the smaller bezels again. It's a failed experiment design dead end.

 

[ponzicoinbro]

The problem is this.

If you are using a MacBook with the notch/pill and it has Dynamic Island.

And then you connect an external display that doesn't have a notch/pill.

Then you can't have Dynamic Island on the external display.

That's a usability problem.

Because if users are using the Dynamic Island on the laptop display and then it doesn't appear on the external display the user has to keep changing their own behavior and expectation too.

It would also break the functionality of apps that use Dynamic Island on the laptop display but can't on the external display.