So, the new 16″ MacBook Pro has a notch. The choice is always there. You could, of course, not include a camera at the top of the screen. Nowadays that’s pretty much a non-starter, what with video conferencing being the way so much happens. So then, if you put a camera up there, do you keep the display a rectangle and therefore have a lot of dead space to the left and right, which you still have to build and pay for, and the users bitch about the size? Or do you put in a notch, giving up some menu bar / display space in the middle of the top of the screen but save like half a centimeter on the overall dimension, and let users bitch about how they can’t see their menu bar?
Guess what? People who want the 16″ (as opposed to the 13″) laptop care less about the size and weight of their device than they care about screen real estate. If size or weight were the deciding factor, they’d get the MacBook Air, or be happy with an iPad Pro. Or a Microsoft Surface.
We’re also supposed to be happy that they brought back MagSafe charging and an SD card slot. I guess these are cool, but here’s what else we have: only 3 USB C ports. But you know what I do have, now that USB C is more and more ubiquitous? I have a lot of peripherals that use USB C connectors to connect to the host computer. I have more than three. But you know what you can’t daisy chain? USB C connectors.
Here’s my bet. The people responsible for the notch don’t actually want to use the 16″ MacBook Pro.