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by Waterluvian 853 days ago
There’s like four different things in the notch. Not just a camera. Plus some recessed screw holes to mount it.

The notch feels weird, but when I try to redesign it without sacrificing features, I can’t come up with a better option. …Not that I’m a brilliant designer by any means.

1 comments

Not really? There's a webcam, an indicator LED, an ambient light sensor, and a lot of empty space. As far as I can tell, the MacBook notch is wide just to make it look like the iPhone notch.

https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/5JIdAqwLsxWAFAyZ

There is also the mounting hardware. It’s not an unreasonable size for what it contains. If they were to really redesign the module they might shave a little off of it but how impactful would that reduction really be?
They probably set the notch size with some margin too, so they could develop the camera module and LCD at the same time.
> The MacBook notch is wide just to make it look like the iPhone notch.

I'm convinced this is true, at least partially.

The iPhone notch is branding and a visual differentiator from the competition, which is Apple's forte, and carrying over that very distinctive design element to other product lines seems right in Apple's playbook.

In other words: glass slab in your hand? Who knows. Glass slab with a black notch? iPhone.

Person typing on metallic laptop in a cafe? Who knows. Ah, but the screen has a notch? MacBook.