Of everything Apple announced yesterday with the new MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display, there’s one detail that has nothing to do with power or the touchscreen, and that made me especially happy: the glowing Apple is back. Ten years later, the logo on the lid lights up again.
John Ternus had hinted at it in the morning with a video on X that showed only an Apple logo projected on a wall and a line with a double meaning: “We’re glowing with excitement about the new MacBook Pro. You have to touch it to believe it.” Glowing and touch: both clues were there.
A symbol Apple turned off in 2016
For years, the white Apple glowing on the lid was one of the hallmarks of Apple’s laptops. It showed up in coffee shops, classrooms, TV shows and movies, and a single glance was enough to know which computer it was. It had no practical purpose, but it was pure brand.
Apple started turning it off in 2015 with the 12-inch MacBook, and removed it from the MacBook Pro with the 2016 redesign, the one with the Touch Bar. Since then, every Apple laptop has had a polished, reflective Apple with no light. The reasons were never officially explained, although the most commonly cited one is that ever-thinner lids left little room for the display’s light to shine through the logo.
The challenge of lighting it with an OLED display
Here’s the interesting part. On older MacBooks, the Apple didn’t have its own light: it was the LCD’s backlight shining through an Apple-shaped cutout in the lid. That’s why it only glowed when the display was on.
The new MacBook Pro uses a tandem OLED panel, and in an OLED each pixel emits its own light: there’s no backlight to borrow. So Apple has had to find another way to light the logo, probably with a separate light source. For now it hasn’t explained how it did it, or whether you’ll be able to turn it off or adjust it in macOS settings. As soon as we know, I’ll update this article.
Which models have it?
Only the MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR display, in its 14- and 16-inch versions, starting at $2,899 in the US. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 announced on Tuesday keeps the previous design and the unlit Apple, as does the MacBook Air. We’ll see whether Apple brings it to the rest of its laptops in future redesigns.
My take
It’s a small detail, but it says a lot. For years Apple cut things in the name of thinness, and the glowing Apple was one of them. Bringing it back on the most groundbreaking MacBook Pro in years, the first with touch and the first with OLED, seems like a very smart way of saying “this is special.” It’s nostalgia, yes, but it’s also brand: you see a Mac across the coffee shop again and instantly know what it is.
What about you? Are you glad it’s back, or don’t you care? Would you like to be able to turn it off? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Sources: MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Applesfera, Cult of Mac, Apple Newsroom. Images: Apple.
