Have you already grown accustomed to the notch in the new MacBook Pro?

While the reality is that finding a product is a lot more difficult than it has been in the past, it appears to still be a good indication of how well something is selling if you can’t find it at all. Which is why even though the brand new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro are probably just like every other piece of technology out there (including touchscreen in some vehicles), and hindered in supply by chip shortages, it would appear Apple’s new professional laptops (or laptops for professionals) are selling quite well. Which also means that there are a lot of people out there with a brand new laptop that has a notch.

Apple's marketing image showing the notch along with the menu bar on the redesigned MacBook Pro from the year 2021

Which should be a wild thing to type out, but, honestly, it isn’t. Apple’s inclusion of the notch in the iPhone X was a wild thing back in the day, sure, but the company’s apparent slow movement to adopt something that isn’t the notch always felt a little like they were just waiting for it to catch on. I honestly can’t say if it has or not. I just know that most people “live with it” and would probably tell you they don’t even notice it anymore. Which is probably the same thing in Apple’s eyes.

After all, the notch might have riled up the same kind of vitriol on the internet as the company’s butterfly keyboard for a time, but it certainly didn’t sustain the same amount of pressure to get rid of it. The notch today is just something that exists, most reviewers don’t knock it, and the fact that Apple slightly reduced the size of the design didn’t really seem to matter all that much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure when Apple does get rid of the notch, which feels inevitable even if the company is slow-footing it, that will be heaped with praise.

But that’s just how these things work.

Before Apple announced the new, redesigned MacBook Pro models the rumor mill popped out the new design ahead of time. A lot of people were flabbergasted, shocked that Apple would bring the notch to a laptop. It’s not even on the iPad lineup, the ones that have adopted the “all-screen” design. So why on earth would it be necessary for a laptop? Well, Apple’s tried to explain that, but, honestly, it really just comes down to whether or not you’re okay with it. A lot of the reviewers of the new hardware said that, in pretty short order they completely ignored the notch altogether. Like it wasn’t there at all.

I can’t do that with the iPhone’s notch. I’ve tried, sure. I’ve expected that it would just “go away” on its own over time, especially after so many years of using it. But that’s absolutely not the case. I definitely still see it. I still kind of hate it for getting in the way of content I’m trying to watch on my phone. That being said, it also hasn’t made me switch to another device without a notch (with or without iOS on it), and it hasn’t made me stop watching stuff on my phone altogether. Do I want the notch gone? Yes. But do I hate it? I guess not so much anymore. I’ve reached that stage of just living with it, and quietly hoping that, one day, Apple will see the light and work out whatever hardware things they want to work out and finally get rid of it.

But now that the rumor mill is already pointing to the MacBook Air also adding a notch in its redesign early in 2022, one has to wonder: how long is the notch going to last in Apple’s laptop lineup? The company’s reasoning for the notch existing would suggest . . . forever? Or at least until we get to a point where the company can put a front-facing camera directly behind the glass and not lose any kind of quality, either in the display or the camera itself, one imagines.

With that being the case, all I would hope is that it also means macOS adds support for Face ID. I understand the reasonings behind not including it, and Touch ID works just fine in the newer MacBook Air and Pro models. But as someone who has used Windows Hello (Microsoft’s facial recognition feature for Windows), it really is pretty nice. Pretty helpful. Just being able to look at my computer and get going after it boots up, for instance. It’s sort of like the Face ID and/or Touch ID situation on iPhones. One is great! However, it would be really awesome if we had both in one device.

In any event, I’m curious about how you’re feeling about the notch in the new MacBook Pro models. If you’ve been using your laptop for a bit now (especially every day), how do you feel about the notch? Are you already accustomed to it being there? Do you hate it and are you returning your laptop because of it?