The notched area of the screen isn’t used in full screen mode. The remaining non-notched area of the screen is a standard size and ratio.
The notch is a total non-issue during normal use because it only exists in the menu bar area. It basically looks like another item occupying your menu bar. If you go full screen you still have a notch-free experience.
They probably show it that way in promotional materials because people wrongly assume that it’s a bigger deal than it actually is. Virtually nobody actually cares about it when they start using the laptop.
How does the notch deal with programs with enough menus to hit that midpoint? Which includes the one I do pretty much all my paying work in. Or people who have enough stuff squatting in the right side of the menu bar to cross the midpoint from the other direction. Which is also me when I'm not hiding most of them with Bartender. So many things just want to plop an icon up there.
I guess I'll find out soon, because one of these M2 Airs will be replacing the 2016 Pro I've been using as soon as I scrape the funds together.
Apps that have been updated to work with the notch will flow around it.
If you have an old app that hasn't been updated, you can enable the "Scale to fit below built-in camera" option on the executable and it will show the full menu bar under the notch, exactly like it worked before the notch existed.
Best way to think about the notch is that it's not subtracting from your 16:10 screen, it's just pushing the menu bar up into the area on either side of the camera. It's previously wasted space that now takes your menu bar so you get the full 16:10 screen for content.
I'm guessing, since the OS handles those menu items and the OS knows about the notch, it'll just skip the notch and continue the menu items to the right.
Does anyone know how well this works with the M2 Air specifically? My understanding with the M1 Pros was that the notch working seamlessly was dependent on Mini-LED.
Without the ability to produce perfect black around the notch, is the notch not going to be an eyesore even in fullscreen mode? Or is the "Liquid Retina" display close enough that it's basically a non-issue?
Even weirder is that according to the rumor mill the notch is already on it's way out in the iPhone, to be replaced with a pill shaped cutout this year, and under-screen cameras in a few years.
If the notch is such an obvious eye-sore, why aren't they abondoning it?