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Did people complain about white bezels in 1998 - 2007?

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Seanm87

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Oct 10, 2014
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I don't understand why white bezels are so controversial. Its clear apple is going with an old school vibe with these Macs with the colours similar to the original iMac in 1998.

Were these hated back in the day or something? The whole device was white now it seems everyone just wants black everything.
 
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eneisch said:
People complained about white bezels on the silver and gold versions of iPhones and iPads back in the day. White also used to be the iconic Apple color. Remember all white iPods and MacBooks?
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The white MBPs around 2007 were disgusting after a few years. Black. ALWAYS, black.

Apple introduces Dark mode, then adds white bezels. 🤣 The entire design team needs to be fired.
 
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The MacBook Air had a white bezel as recent as 2014.


techspecs_13_headline.jpg
 
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Seanm87 said:
I don't understand why white bezels are so controversial. Its clear apple is going with an old school vibe with these Macs with the colours similar to the original iMac in 1998.

Were these hated back in the day or something? The whole device was white now it seems everyone just wants black everything.
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White bezels are absolutely the worst. There is a reason why virtually no TV, monitor, etc, has a white bezel. It's much easier on your eyes to concentrate on content on a screen when the bezel is black, grey, etc. Dark colors are always best. Light colors are worse. White is the worst.
 
We didn't get full screen mode until OS X Lion, which is when that would have started to matter to people.

Yeah, you want to have a neutral color to work against, hence why photography/design tools are done the way they are.
 
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I think at the time, late 90's we were coming off everything being beige in computing. My 1993 Mac was an off white which was not too bad but now that we have done the whole white thing it's kind of like re introducing white dress shoes for men with a matching white belt :)
 
Better than beige but worse than black imo. Hopefully you are right and it's just an old school vibe like you say.
 
ignatius345 said:
they hadn't yet been trained by tech bloggers to flip the hell out when they saw a "chin" or a "forehead" either.
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Personally, the reason I don't like "chins" and "foreheads" is because of the aesthetic asymmetry. A reasonably-sized bezel that is (more-or-less) equal on two (or four) sides avoids that problem.
 
I haven't seen a white bezel since my G4 iMac, I don't remember it mattering to me at all though.
 
I ordered the original '06 24" Intel iMac on launch day. Didn't mind the bezels at all. I'd much rather have the white acrylic bezels than the stupidly glossy glass covered screens that replaced it. Screen was actually pretty impressive coming from the little 15" LCD with my preordered '05 Mini.

Personally I don't mind the appearance of the new iMacs at all, it's everything else about them that I don't like.
 
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blairh said:
White bezels are absolutely the worst. There is a reason why virtually no TV, monitor, etc, has a white bezel. It's much easier on your eyes to concentrate on content on a screen when the bezel is black, grey, etc. Dark colors are always best. Light colors are worse. White is the worst.
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I have a strong feeling we'll be seeing aftermarket die-cut vinyl overlays in black and other colors.

I also wouldn't be at all surprised if the next iMac, in addition to being larger, has better display tech (like these new micro LEDs the iPad Pro has) and gets a "professional" looking black bezel to set it all apart from the consumer-level iMac they intro'd yesterday. There would be some precedent here, as the now discontinued iMac Pro came in black and even had special black input devices you couldn't (at first, anyway) buy separately.

Apple is clearly doing some work these days to differentiate its Pro products from its baseline consumer-level products.
 
Yes, yes we did. Especially the glossy versions. There are many reasons why pretty much everyone moved away from white bezels since then (especially in larger devices). Even if 15-25 years ago you said you were fine with them doesn't mean you can't change your mind or now after all that time think the look is extremely dated. There are a lot of things that have changed in that time.

If you like white bezels - fine I don't have a problem with that. However, with 7 different color choices for Apple not to have a couple options with black bezels for those of us who really dislike the white/light ones is pretty frustrating.
 
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azentropy said:
Yes, yes we did. Especially the glossy versions. There are many reasons why pretty much everyone moved away from white bezels since then (especially in larger devices). Even if 15-25 years ago you said you were fine with them doesn't mean you can't change your mind or now after all that time think the look is extremely dated. There are a lot of things that have changed in that time.

If you like white bezels - fine I don't have a problem with that. However, with 7 different color choices for Apple not to have a couple options with black bezels for those of us who really dislike the white/light ones is pretty frustrating.
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I agree. The iPhone and iPad have a choice of bezel color.
 
ignatius345 said:
People barely knew the word "bezel" back then -- and they hadn't yet been trained by tech bloggers to flip the hell out when they saw a "chin" or a "forehead" either. Maybe the next thing people should whine about is the "foot" of the stand.
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time for a mock-up of an imac with a foot that extends into a full desk pad
 
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My first Apple product was an iMac G5, in 2004. The whole thing was white, and I loved it. I'm happy to get a bit of a throwback for a few years.
 
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