M2 MacBook Air Notch

jbailey

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The M2 MacBook Air is my first Mac with a camera notch. I was prepared to be neutral on it—at best I could ignore it. But I just discovered something that has changed my mind.

I don't often use full screen mode on applications because I find the loss of the menu bar annoying. Status information like time and WiFi is now missing unless I make the effort to move my cursor to the top of the screen. I had Safari in full screen mode and I noticed that when I moved my cursor to the top of the screen, the menu bar faded in but the rest of the screen stayed the same. This is different than what I saw with the M1 MacBook Air.

It occurred to me that with the notch, I could leave the menu bar visible in full screen mode and not lose any screen real estate. Suddenly with the M2 MBA, full screen mode and Spaces is a lot more appealing. I get maxxed out screen real estate which is important on a small 13" screen but I don't get the annoyance of the lost menu bar. This is great and makes me appreciate the design decision by Apple. Now full screen and spaces are far more useful than ever before.

Am I just slow and everyone already knew this? I haven't seen anyone commenting on this feature of the notched MacBooks.
 

leman

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I never understood the complaints about the notch. It’s neatly integrated into the menu bar and if you use dark mode it’s practically invisible. You are gaining a bit of useable vertical space and losing absolutely nothing.
 

DT

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We haven't had a notched MB yet, but have an M2 MBA on the way, I'm interested to see how it works, you know, direct and hands on.

I've never had an issue with the notch on iPhones, I get the engineering/design decision, make sense to me on a notebook as well.
 

mollyc

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i have an m1 max mbp and *never* notice the notch. even coming from a 27” imac.
 

januarydrive7

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I had the 14" M1 for 2 weeks*, and I only noticed the notch when looking for it. I'm still on an iPhone 7, so I haven't been conditioned to the design. Turns out, for me at least, when focused on real work (i.e., not reviewing a design quirk), then periphery aesthetics disappear.

*returned because I want to check out the 16"
 

DT

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I had the 14" M1 for 2 weeks*, and I only noticed the notch when looking for it. I'm still on an iPhone 7, so I haven't been conditioned to the design. Turns out, for me at least, when focused on real work (i.e., not reviewing a design quirk), then periphery aesthetics disappear.

*returned because I want to check out the 16"

Same spec for the 16" (i.e., just a display size difference) or going for a more robust config?
 

januarydrive7

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Same spec for the 16" (i.e., just a display size difference) or going for a more robust config?
A bit of both -- I'm used to larger displays, and while the 14" is certainly a step up from my wife's 13", it was hard to move down from my 16" intel MBP. Additionally, the only model I could get "today" is base spec, and I prefer at least 1TB with >= 32gb memory.

Finally, I'm fine waiting a bit longer (perhaps until M2 Pro chips are out), as I'm at a stage where I don't need the power at the moment. I would have considered waiting for the rumored 15" MBA, if I never saw the amazing screen on the 14". My wife was sad when I returned the 14" due to the screen alone.
 
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