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At this point, the same old shell is a problem.

The notch has aged poorly. Seeing the MacBook Neo launch without a notch has been interesting.

A notch with facial recognition would have been maybe worth that use of space, but it’s just an average webcam and nothing special ever arrived.

I also think that the MacBook Pro models are a little heavy and maybe even a little thick for what they are. There’s probably innovation to be had in some kind of update to the thermal management system.

I see systems like the ASUS Zephyrus G14/G16 doing some amazing work on fitting crazy high power draw hardware into a compact and light form factor, and while I know Apple would never optimize that far in the direction of additional noise, it’s still something I think about.

The MacBook Pro having no innovation in thermal management in 5 years has been fine because they make some of the most efficient chips on the market, but it also means that Apple has been under-optimizing for the golden silicon they have on their hands.

> the notch has aged poorly

Over time, I have come to appreciate the apps that actually take advantage of it (like dictation indicator). It would be better if the menu bar was aware of it and handled hiding icons correctly, thought. I guess it might evolve into a Dynamic Island someday.

I don’t necessarily want the laptops to go back to the overly thin form factors they used to have.

It would be cool if some manufacturers would come up with a self cleaning screen, though. Like ultra sonic micro vibrations while you lift the lid open or something (this might be part of the realm of magic right now, I know).

What do you think Apple should do to improve the shell? I thought the Asus Zephyrus 14 was pretty noisy.
Yeah, the Intel Macs, despite using CPUs with worse power usage and thermal profiles than the AS chips, were thinner and lighter. The current machines are at least as heavy and bulky as 2010-era Macs.

Even the Air, whose whole selling point was supposed to be “thin and light”, now weighs over 3lbs. Far cry from the <1.5lb 11” Air — anyone remember that one? Amazing portable computer.

If you run the GPU full-throttle, you get, what, 1.5 hours of battery life? That takes you from 'laptop' to 'portable desktop' territory.

For CPU-only workloads, it's back to the ideal 'don't pack a charger'.

It can do both that’s the beauty. You can use it as a portable desktop sometimes and as an all day laptop other times all in the same device.

I love my M2 Max on long haul flights when I can plug it in. Crossing the Atlantic I can just load up a game from steam and play for 5 hours and then I’m back home in the US.