The macOS notch is the small rectangular cutout at the top centre of newer MacBook displays. It first appeared in October 2021, when Apple redesigned the MacBook Pro to ship with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera. To fit the bigger camera without making the bezel taller, Apple punched a hole through the top of the screen — the notch.
The notch sits inside the menu bar. That's the important bit. Apple didn't steal screen real estate from your apps; the notch lives in space the menu bar was already using. Most of the time, all you notice is a clock and a Wi-Fi icon on either side of a black gap.
Which Macs have a notch?
As of 2026, the notch ships on these models:
- MacBook Pro 14" — M1 Pro / Max (2021), M2 Pro / Max (2023), M3 Pro / Max (2023), M4 Pro / Max (2024).
- MacBook Pro 16" — same generations as the 14".
- MacBook Air 13" — M2 (2022), M3 (2024), M4 (2025).
- MacBook Air 15" — M2 (2023), M3 (2024), M4 (2025).
No iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Pro has a notch — they pair with external displays, and external displays don't have one.
Why is it there?
Three reasons:
- Camera quality. Apple wanted the same 1080p FaceTime sensor it ships on the iMac. That sensor is physically larger than the older 720p camera and needs more vertical depth.
- More screen. Cutting around the camera let Apple push pixels right to the top of the laptop chassis, which is why you get an extra row of menu-bar real estate on either side.
- iPhone family resemblance. Apple's been on a multi-year campaign to make every screen-device feel related. The notch on Mac mirrors the look of the notch (and now Dynamic Island) on iPhone.
Make your notch useful in 90 seconds
NotchNest turns the notch into a hub for calendar, clipboard, notes, music and AirDrop. Free.
Is the notch the same as Dynamic Island?
No. iPhone's Dynamic Island is a software feature — an actively animated UI that hosts Live Activities (timers, music, AirPods, Maps). The Mac notch is just a physical cutout. macOS itself doesn't put any UI inside it.
That's the gap third-party apps fill. NotchNest wraps the notch in a hover-activated panel: hover with the cursor and the notch expands into a glassy widget surface. Same hardware, completely different feel.
Does the notch get in the way?
Rarely. macOS automatically shifts menu-bar icons around it. If you have so many menu-bar items that they would collide with the notch, the icons that would land beneath it get hidden until you click into the menu bar. If you find yourself there, an app like Bartender or Ice can compact the menu bar — see our guide on how to customise the macOS menu bar.
Full-screen video and games can pad around the notch, in which case you lose a small black strip at the top of the content. That's set in System Settings → Displays → Show all resolutions → Scaled, where you can pick a notch-aware or notch-padded resolution.
Can I get rid of it?
Apple won't let you remove it, but you can make the screen behave as if it's not there. Show all resolutions → Scaled gives you a 16:10 resolution that pads the top of the display in black, hiding the notch behind a uniform bar. You lose around 75 vertical pixels of menu bar in exchange.
Most people find this a worse deal than just using the notch. If you've ever wished your Mac had an iPhone-style Dynamic Island, that's exactly what apps like NotchNest give you.
The takeaway
The notch is a small piece of hardware engineering that traded a tiny cosmetic compromise for a much better camera and slightly more screen. It's not going anywhere; rumours suggest Apple will eventually replace it with a hole-punch (or under-display camera), but for now it's a defining feature of modern MacBooks. The smart move is to embrace it — give the notch something to do.