The quality of the webcam on the newer XPS is pretty subpar though.
It was a step down from their previous webcam setup below the display, which was very unflattering and blocked if you typed.
When they moved it up to the top again, the sensor was shrunk and (I believe, but may be mistaken) the lens array was simplified.
The notch lets Apple keep a higher quality camera there than if they integrated it directly into the bezel like Dell.
It's a "solved problem" if you're only designing to solve a very specific problem, but physics is uncompromising, and you therefore have tradeoffs if you want better image from the camera.
The quality of everything on the XPS laptops is subpar compared to a MBP. Used both in the same year for several months. XPS is a good, even very good laptop. MBP it is not.
I had an XPS 15 which I thought was absolutely amazing. (The first gen with the infinity edge screen)
I eventually traded in for a MacBook Pro for about the same cost (needed to do iOS dev).
The XPS was probably one of the best Windows laptops I'd used. It's still my go to recommendation when someone wants a good, developer laptop and Windows.
However, like you said, the XPS build is nowhere near a comparable MacBook Pro. I'd say the closest I've used in terms of build quality to a Mac is the Razer or Surface Book laptops.
I don't get all the fuss. Apps don't have to make changes to accommodate it because the system will do that for them, unless they want to go out of their way to use the extra (!) space.
I don't get it either. The notch essentially covers up the middle of the menu bar and is a non-issue when full-screening. Apple essentially encroached the screen into the camera's territory and used the extra few pixels for the menu bar with the notch covering the middle of the menu bar which is typically empty and wasted space.
There's zero impact on full screen apps and non-fullscreen apps get to claim the space formerly used by the menu bar.
How so? Are they going to push full screen apps up to the bottom of the notch? If not, how are you sure it won’t have any impact on so many different apps?
The menubar disappears when you’re in a full screen app, so that won’t help.
I’ve used full screen only for essentially every app daily for the past 10 years on Mac, curious to see how this works out.
By default the system blacks-out the segments next to the bar in full-screen mode. If devs opt in, they can instead choose to use the extra space in full-screen mode. So there's literally no downside.
The screen is apparently a 16:10 display, plus approximately 70 (not sure about the number) pixels on top: thusly, when an app goes fullscreen, the OS just blacks out those top pixels and puts the app in the 16:10 area (unless it uses the new API and requests access to these pixels)
It's funny to me, without the notch the device would waste something like 3 square inches of usable space.
Maybe someone will write a system extension that just tells the system the display is 48 pixels shorter than it physically is and just forces the top 48-64 pixels to be unused and it will appear to have no notch.
That's what appears to be happening. The screen appears just a little taller than 16:10 - in windowed modes where the menubar is present, the menubar extends into this additional headroom. In fullscreen modes, the extra headroom just isn't used - it's blacked out and the screen is presented as a 16:10 screen.
So it's treated the same way as the iphone treats it - extra space that can be used usually, and just isn't used where it's not sensible.
It's funny I have a logitech cam at the top of my monitor, which effectively covers the exact same space as this new notch. The bezels on monitors have gotten so thin it's tough to include add ons.
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[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 82.0 ms ] threadI agree, this a solved problem without cutting into the screen with an ugly notch.
It was a step down from their previous webcam setup below the display, which was very unflattering and blocked if you typed.
When they moved it up to the top again, the sensor was shrunk and (I believe, but may be mistaken) the lens array was simplified.
The notch lets Apple keep a higher quality camera there than if they integrated it directly into the bezel like Dell.
It's a "solved problem" if you're only designing to solve a very specific problem, but physics is uncompromising, and you therefore have tradeoffs if you want better image from the camera.
I eventually traded in for a MacBook Pro for about the same cost (needed to do iOS dev).
The XPS was probably one of the best Windows laptops I'd used. It's still my go to recommendation when someone wants a good, developer laptop and Windows.
However, like you said, the XPS build is nowhere near a comparable MacBook Pro. I'd say the closest I've used in terms of build quality to a Mac is the Razer or Surface Book laptops.
There's zero impact on full screen apps and non-fullscreen apps get to claim the space formerly used by the menu bar.
How so? Are they going to push full screen apps up to the bottom of the notch? If not, how are you sure it won’t have any impact on so many different apps?
The menubar disappears when you’re in a full screen app, so that won’t help.
I’ve used full screen only for essentially every app daily for the past 10 years on Mac, curious to see how this works out.
Maybe someone will write a system extension that just tells the system the display is 48 pixels shorter than it physically is and just forces the top 48-64 pixels to be unused and it will appear to have no notch.
Me, I'm happy to have that extra space
Funny how people can rationalize every bad idea that Apple has.
So it's treated the same way as the iphone treats it - extra space that can be used usually, and just isn't used where it's not sensible.