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jackblack123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 27, 2022
24
4
Hi , I have a specific use case for the following and need advise from owners of Macbook Pro (14 or 16) owners to understand the behavior.

1. How does the notch interact with UI elements , Dock and Application UI if the screen is rotated 180 degrees aka upside down?

2. How does the notch appear in screen recordings (Quicktime and OBS)

Hoping the community can help me here before a purchasing decision. Any screenshots or photos of the above scenarios would help me to a great extend
 
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fwmireault

macrumors 68020
Jul 4, 2019
2,288
9,705
Montréal, Canada
I'd like to help you for the first question, but I can't find a way to rotate my MacBook Pro 16 screen, I only have the option to rotate the screen of my external display. Is it possible at all to do so on a MacBook Pro?

For the second question, the computer behaves like if there was no notch. If you take a screenshot or video recording, it will show the UI elements that would be hidden by the notch.
 

fwmireault

macrumors 68020
Jul 4, 2019
2,288
9,705
Montréal, Canada
For the first question please refer to https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mh11534/mac as guidance for rotating the screen 180 degrees or the fully functional trial of switchresX for 10 days (https://www.madrau.com/srx_download/download.html)

I used to rotate the screen on M1 macbook air? By any chance the rotation is unavailable on Mac with notch?
I can't rotate it, the option is not offered for my MacBook Pro screen, although it is for my external display. Can't get the screen to rotate on SwitchresX either. Maybe someone with a 16 inch ARM MBP can give it a try? It is possible that Apple disabled the option on all MacBooks with notch
 

fwmireault

macrumors 68020
Jul 4, 2019
2,288
9,705
Montréal, Canada
@fwmireault Please let me know one you have validated the screen rotation
Got it, it works. Thank you for the tip.

So when the screen is upside down, the MacBook doesn’t use the menu bar space at all. So the screen (including the wallpaper) stops just under the notch, and the cursor cannot access the zone at its left or right. It looks just like any older MacBook, like if your upper bezel was larger than the sides. Hope it helps!
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,262
13,349
I just have to ask:
What kind of use case requires the MacBook to be "rotated" 180 degrees to upside-down...?
 

jackblack123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 27, 2022
24
4
I just have to ask:
What kind of use case requires the MacBook to be "rotated" 180 degrees to upside-down...?
Thanks for asking.. Coming from the world of windows and 2 in Ones that tilt 180 or 360 degrees after long hours of sitting i have a practice of keeping the laptop / mac totally flat on the bed and reading from above

As we know macs dont tilt even to 180 degrees to keep the ipad sales alive ;) so i lay the mac with the display on the bed and keyboard in the air.

Obviously then i will be using Logitech K380 and a pebble mouse to navigate the UI. Since i will be typing the keyboard without looking as Macbook will be blocking my view to keyboard this also increased by typing speed.

The reason for me to ask this question is the following

Due to some unknown reasons i kept delaying Macbook Air M1 though i have extensively used my sisters’ machine

Now that we have M2 Macbook Air i might go for 24GB / 512GB version to give some memory headroom for virtual machines and dockers.

I know a configuration like the above would take the price quite close to Macbook Pro 14.

But for all the reasons including use in bed and the gymnastics i am doing with the machine i would say the fanless design would suite me better. And the 32gig Macbook Pro 14 is out of reach for me.

I am also quite sensitive to blooming , i already have an ipad pro 12.9 with mini led for watching movies and would hop on an XDR display MAC when Apple transition to an OLED or MicroLED. I would say a microLED or OLED without PWM dimming as i am sensitive to PWM as well…. I know a pipedream

Blooming is a big no for me.. though i am watching movies on my 12.9 ipad investment


I wanted to make sure the Notch will not create major issues
 
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