The lid isn’t deep enough to house the required equipment.
Imagine a laptop screen as deep as an iPhone
2 Likes
I’m sure they had their reasons and that certainly makes sense. I do wish they could have used a pinhole for the camera like some Android phones instead of a big block.
Android phones with a pinhole don’t have IR face-mapping, just a camera. While the software techniques to 3D map with just a camera are improving, I think only Samsung’s and Google’s are passable in low light and with all skin colors. They just achieved that in the last year and they still underperform Face ID.
Just going from Apple’s size notch to the smaller smooth triangle shape seen on the Moto G means sensor tradeoffs. All that space is used.
(The Pixel 8 does have IR on the back of the phone that takes your temperature, strangely.)
I wasn’t talking about Face ID, which is still only used on iPhones and some iPads, just the webcam that Apple currently installs in MacBooks.
Sorry, I misunderstood.
If you’re just talking about the macOS camera, they would still need to remove sensors to just have a pinhole there. I think it’ll be possible to add IR without increasing the notch size in a future MBP form factor.
1 Like
It seems to me that the light sensor and possibly the TrueTone sensor could have been integrated into the deck, and the “camera on” LED would only require a pinhole.
But I’m still grumpy about the MacBook notch. I’d rather see the lid a bit taller and get the full use of my menu bar. I don’t think Steve Jobs would have ever bought into “they’ll get used to it” as a reason to let such a clumsy and awkward design decision get through approvals.
I don’t feel the same about the notch/island on an iPhone, because its top bar was never that useful anyway, and tiny tradeoffs in size make a bigger difference on a pocket-sized device.
1 Like