Moreover the location of the FaceTime camera on a MacBook Air is not at the thickest location of its tapered lid.
By contrast the iPhone 4S is uniformly thick. Trust me, I've owned both.
It was widely expected by many that the M1 MacBook Air would reuse the industrial design of the previous Intel MacBook Air it was replacing. Apple made no promises that the each new Apple Silicon Macs would be completely redesigned when the new SoCs shipped.
Remember that the lens on the Mac notebook FaceTime cameras are extremely small. The possibilities at that lens size (and cost) combined with the sensor size aren't particularly conducive to high definition video image quality. To get better image quality, they would have to consider a combination of: larger lens, larger sensor, and higher cost. As Apple has shown time and time again, they are loathe to fatten up their products.
So to increase FaceTime camera resolution, their main choices would be to A.) increase component cost, B.) reduce video image quality, and C.) wait for better quality components that are suitable size to come down in price. My guess is that Apple chose Option C.
Apple is the largest company in Fortune 500 market valuation. It is likely that their labs have sample units for every single commercial viable camera module on this planet including a bunch of engineering prototypes that have yet to appear in ANY device. It's not that Apple hasn't thought about it.
There was a 3rd option - make the lid a touch thicker to accommodate a higher resolution camera. Assuming that the camera and lid thicknesses actually were the issue, it would be a classic example of compromising function for form.
I went back and looked at the ifixit teardown of the 6s - the 1080p front camera on the 6s doesn't take up the entire depth, and the 6s came out 5 years ago so unless someone has evidence otherwise, I think the thickness concern is merely an excuse. The same goes for cost - a 1080p front camera for the iPhone 8 costs $6 - that's retail, not wholesale.
I have no doubt that the combination of cost and size has improved in the last 5 years so a smaller 1080p camera assembly is much cheaper now than it was 5 years ago, but for 'pro' laptops that cost in excess of $2k, the cost really is a pretty pathetic excuse.
I went back and looked at the ifixit teardown of the 6s - the 1080p front camera on the 6s doesn't take up the entire depth, and the 6s came out 5 years ago so unless someone has evidence otherwise, I think the thickness concern is merely an excuse.
You can think whatever you want, but physics is physics. A 6s is 7.1mm thick. The lid on my 16" MBP is roughly 3.5mm. Even if the camera module on the 6s was only half the thickness of the phone, it would still be as thick as the ENTIRE lid on the MBP.
Subtract the space need for the screen glass and the aluminum case itself, and you do NOT have a lot of room. Especially towards the edges where it's beveled even more.
The only real way to add a much larger camera would be a bump, or perhaps go iPad Pro on it and put the screen AND battery AND electronics in the lid, and only have the keyboard and trackpad in the base.
I went back and looked at the ifixit teardown of the 6s - the 1080p front camera on the 6s doesn't take up the entire depth, and the 6s came out 5 years ago so unless someone has evidence otherwise, I think the thickness concern is merely an excuse.
You can think whatever you want, but physics is physics. A 6s is 7.1mm thick. The lid on my 16" MBP is roughly 3.5mm. Even if the camera module on the 6s was only half the thickness of the phone, it would still be as thick as the ENTIRE lid on the MBP.
Subtract the space need for the screen glass and the aluminum case itself, and you do NOT have a lot of room. Especially towards the edges where it's beveled even more.
The only real way to add a much larger camera would be a bump, or perhaps go iPad Pro on it and put the screen AND battery AND electronics in the lid, and only have the keyboard and trackpad in the base.
Those were the dimensions 4-6 years ago, and you're also assuming it's impossible to alter the lid geometry to accommodate the camera (i.e. change the edge bevel.) It's pretty clearly a choice Apple made
Putting the entire computer in the screen half of the clamshell isn't a bad idea and having the brains with the screen eliminates the issue of running a video signal through the hinge. You have to be careful not to alter the balance, though - if there's too much weight in the top half it tends to tip over. Since the only thing 'up top' right now is essentially the screen, adding the logic board would make it thicker. Since the the logic board is relatively small, they'd end up with a bunch of 'dead space' unless they moved the battery up as well and I suspect that would cause balance issues.
I went back and looked at the ifixit teardown of the 6s - the 1080p front camera on the 6s doesn't take up the entire depth, and the 6s came out 5 years ago so unless someone has evidence otherwise, I think the thickness concern is merely an excuse.
You can think whatever you want, but physics is physics. A 6s is 7.1mm thick. The lid on my 16" MBP is roughly 3.5mm. Even if the camera module on the 6s was only half the thickness of the phone, it would still be as thick as the ENTIRE lid on the MBP.
Subtract the space need for the screen glass and the aluminum case itself, and you do NOT have a lot of room. Especially towards the edges where it's beveled even more.
The only real way to add a much larger camera would be a bump, or perhaps go iPad Pro on it and put the screen AND battery AND electronics in the lid, and only have the keyboard and trackpad in the base.
Those were the dimensions 4-6 years ago, and you're also assuming it's impossible to alter the lid geometry to accommodate the camera (i.e. change the edge bevel.) It's pretty clearly a choice Apple made
Putting the entire computer in the screen half of the clamshell isn't a bad idea and having the brains with the screen eliminates the issue of running a video signal through the hinge. You have to be careful not to alter the balance, though - if there's too much weight in the top half it tends to tip over. Since the only thing 'up top' right now is essentially the screen, adding the logic board would make it thicker. Since the the logic board is relatively small, they'd end up with a bunch of 'dead space' unless they moved the battery up as well and I suspect that would cause balance issues.
Both top and bottom shells could be wedges that close to a thin rectangle. Move passive cooled SOC up in screen gives it more airflow to stay cool. Battery under keyboard gives more angle to keyboard for typing comfort.
Why? You’d still need some sort of physical action whatever you’re authenticating. Think about it. A dialog comes up asking for authentication. You’re already looking at your Mac. You need some physical action to confirm you want to approve (or not) whatever the action is asking for authentication. On an iPhone or iPad, you tap the sleep/wake button twice. So whether it’s a trackpad action or a key press, at this point you might as well use Touch ID. I’m not sure there’s a use case for Face ID on the Mac that makes a lot of sense.
Why? You’d still need some sort of physical action whatever you’re authenticating. Think about it. A dialog comes up asking for authentication. You’re already looking at your Mac. You need some physical action to confirm you want to approve (or not) whatever the action is asking for authentication. On an iPhone or iPad, you tap the sleep/wake button twice. So whether it’s a trackpad action or a key press, at this point you might as well use Touch ID. I’m not sure there’s a use case for Face ID on the Mac that makes a lot of sense.
So why bother having FaceID on your phone? Because it’s quicker, more accurate and more convenient. The same applies to a computer - it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
It is funny that in past Apple's MAC update schedule was based on Intel chip schedule which was over year. Now Apple moved to it's own M1 chip and everyone complaining why M2 is not here within a year?
For MBP, remove touch bar and use saved money to upgrade front camera to 1080P,4 USB-C ports for MB AIR/PRO, etc.
The new MacBook Pros will have more than that - they're slated to have mini-LED displays, more ports, and Magsafe as well.
Cost savings include elimination of the Touch Bar and expensive Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs.
Better cameras are chump change compared to these savings, though the M1x SoCs will likely be an expensive component - though not as expensive as the aforementioned Intel and AMD processors. Many factors go into the pricing of these components: everything from advertising to all the middle-men taking cuts. While embedded chips don't go through these marketing phases, ultimately their pricing reflects the pricing structure of the CPU and GPU vendor markets.
I expect Apple to keep the retail price of the 16" and 14" around the same, with the M1x SoC and 16 and 32 core GPUs to revolutionize the upper end of the PC market like the M1s did to the lower end offering price/energy efficiency/performance which will be difficult for competitors to match.
Comments
I went back and looked at the ifixit teardown of the 6s - the 1080p front camera on the 6s doesn't take up the entire depth, and the 6s came out 5 years ago so unless someone has evidence otherwise, I think the thickness concern is merely an excuse. The same goes for cost - a 1080p front camera for the iPhone 8 costs $6 - that's retail, not wholesale.
I have no doubt that the combination of cost and size has improved in the last 5 years so a smaller 1080p camera assembly is much cheaper now than it was 5 years ago, but for 'pro' laptops that cost in excess of $2k, the cost really is a pretty pathetic excuse.
Subtract the space need for the screen glass and the aluminum case itself, and you do NOT have a lot of room. Especially towards the edges where it's beveled even more.
The only real way to add a much larger camera would be a bump, or perhaps go iPad Pro on it and put the screen AND battery AND electronics in the lid, and only have the keyboard and trackpad in the base.
Putting the entire computer in the screen half of the clamshell isn't a bad idea and having the brains with the screen eliminates the issue of running a video signal through the hinge. You have to be careful not to alter the balance, though - if there's too much weight in the top half it tends to tip over. Since the only thing 'up top' right now is essentially the screen, adding the logic board would make it thicker. Since the the logic board is relatively small, they'd end up with a bunch of 'dead space' unless they moved the battery up as well and I suspect that would cause balance issues.
Cost savings include elimination of the Touch Bar and expensive Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs.
Better cameras are chump change compared to these savings, though the M1x SoCs will likely be an expensive component - though not as expensive as the aforementioned Intel and AMD processors. Many factors go into the pricing of these components: everything from advertising to all the middle-men taking cuts. While embedded chips don't go through these marketing phases, ultimately their pricing reflects the pricing structure of the CPU and GPU vendor markets.
I expect Apple to keep the retail price of the 16" and 14" around the same, with the M1x SoC and 16 and 32 core GPUs to revolutionize the upper end of the PC market like the M1s did to the lower end offering price/energy efficiency/performance which will be difficult for competitors to match.