I was going along with you until this. I'm quite happy with the upcoming notch on the new MBP. If I can get extra height out of my screen by the height of the menu bar, then I consider that a win. My current menu bar contains nothing in the center where the notch will be, so I am losing nothing. The gain in screen height will be most welcome.
This is my use-case. I am sure that even designers will adapt, just because.
It works for you, but I cannot live with this abomination in my face, the gain in screen height is removed when you use your app in full-screen. I have a very sensitive eyes, this is part of my main workflow as a designer. When designing my eyes are all over the screen and this shape will attract attention even when is "hidden" by os.
But I totally understand, when coding I rarely look above the horizontal line of the screen (my favorite short-key: C-l).
P.S. There is another reason: I am spoiled from years of using nearly flawless Apple products, I cannot tolerate such design imperfection.
But then you've lost nothing from the previous Macbook, right? And as far as I can tell without seeing one of the new ones live, it'll just look the same as the old bezel in full-screen - a thick black strip across the top, no?
Imagine you have a sports car with beautiful design and powerful engine. You love it, but you want the new model, because you hope that you can cover the corners of the track with more speed and control.
The new model is here. You will have everything new, with one caveat. You can only use the full potential on the straight parts of the track. In the corners you will have the speed and control of the older model.
Then why buy the new model?
If with all of these you're still holding on to the old model, then that one is probably good enough for you and indeed you have no reason to buy the new one. That doesn't say anything about the new model, but says a lot about the old one and your needs and priorities. :)
That's why I stated: Use-case UX. Everything is a compromise. This is one that I cannot make.
And I am not alone in this. As a design driven company Apple should known better. And the better compromise is: the notch is there because of Face ID. Not because somewhere in the future it will be.
It is not. It is a f-in web-cam.
Someone stated that "there is no way to do a web cam without the notch". Can you imagine? And this is HN.:)
Using enormous "love & brand addiction" to sneak something on the user reminded me about iPhone 4 - "You are holding it wrong" fiasco. I remember clearly that a lot of people tried to convince me that I am wrong in my decision "not to buy".:)
> And the better compromise is: the notch is there because of Face ID.
The notch has nothing to do with FaceID. It's for the webcam. FaceID can exist without a notch just the same and no-FaceID. All it needs is to waste the area around the notch with a bezel, like the older models. As a rock climber who every few days has trouble unlocking the computer with TouchID, I also want FaceID on my Mac.
> Someone stated that "there is no way to do a web cam without the notch".
I mean, that's obviously untrue since we've had webcams in laptops for many years without notches. The more correct statement would be that you cannot reduce the bezel further than the vertical size of the webcam without a notch - or a retractable webcam like some laptops have (I wouldn't want that moving part on my MacBook though).
> reminded me about iPhone 4 - "You are holding it wrong" fiasco.
The notch is an aesthetic thing. The iPhone 4 antenna thing actually made the device unusable as a phone. I don't see how these are related.
In any case, I am fairly certain there will be (either as part of the OS or as a 3rd party add-on) an option to make the top stripe permanently black and out of the usable screen eventually. If I'm right about this, everybody wins - extra space for those who don't mind the notch, regular 16:10 screen for the ones offended by it.