It would have escaped no one that the new MacBook Pros have a notch on the top center of the screen. This bothers some people. But Apple says it: the notch is a good idea.

MacBook Pro’s notch is a good idea for Apple

“What we’ve done is we’ve made the screen bigger. Like on the 16-inch laptop, you still have a 16:10 active area on the diagonal in that 16-inch window, and we just made the screen bigger from there and put the menu bar at the top,” Shruti Haldea, a Mac executive, said on the Smart Brain podcast.

The woman who was one of the presenters during the keynote added, “We just moved it up and out of the way. So it’s a very smart way to give you more space for your content, and when you’re in full screen mode, you have this window with a 16:10 ratio, and it’s very nice. It’s harmonious.

During the keynote, Apple said the new MacBook Pros with notch have smaller borders. The manufacturer says they are 24% thinner than the previous generation, measuring 3.5mm on the left and right side of the display. On the top, where there is the notch, the border is 60% thinner than before, also measuring at 3.5mm.

macOS also does what is necessary to adapt to this notch. For example, a black banner appears when the user opens an application in full screen. In addition, the dark mode hides (more or less) the notch.