Apple changed the MacBook Pro in 2021 with a new chassis design and a notch to add more screen real estate. The design later trickled down to the company"s budget laptops, MacBook Air 13 and MacBook Air 15.
Like iPhones and iPads, the Cupertino giant is expected to bring OLED display technology to MacBooks in the coming years. A new piece of information from the analytics firm Omdia suggests (via MacRumors) that the days of the notch on the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops are limited. Instead, the future version of MacBook Pro is expected to feature a hole-punch camera.
OLED technology can offer deeper blacks, improved brightness, and better contrast against the mini-LED displays in the current MacBook Pro models. According to the roadmap shared on social media, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops with Hybrid OLED panels are expected to launch in 2026, featuring the hole-punch camera. However, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air are expected to carry the notch"s legacy through 2028.
While the notch chipped in some extra screen space for the users without bumping the hardware size, Apple hasn"t added any helpful functionality to it. It is tall enough to fit inside the menu bar at the top, and Apple creates an artificial bezel by darkening the sides to provide a "seamless" experience to the user in full-screen mode.
So, the user is still left with a 16:10 aspect ratio to work on, which is the same as previous generations. On the flip side, the notch arrived for the first time on the iPhone X with Face ID facial recognition technology. The pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro brings the Dynamic Island interface with which users can interact for various purposes.
It"s not known at the moment if Apple will bring Dynamic Island features or Face ID to the MacBook as well in the future when it replaces the notch with a punch-hole cutout.