Apple's new PROLED MacBook Pro lights its lid logo with four white LEDs, a teardown by iFixit has found. That detail has revived an argument that the company passed up an easy chance to use multicolor RGB lighting. The illumination is synced to screen brightness through software.
The logo's return drew the loudest reaction at Apple CEO John Ternus's announcement of the first touchscreen Mac last month, according to The Verge. That event also introduced the PROLED MacBook Pro's OLED touchscreen and a thinner, lighter chassis. The lit lid echoes the glowing logos on older MacBooks, which Apple began phasing out in 2015 and had removed entirely by the 2018 MacBook Air redesign.
On those older machines, the screen's backlight lit the logo, but an OLED display has no backlight. The four white LEDs stand in for it. Because the light source is now separate hardware rather than display spill, Apple could have specified RGB LEDs instead.
Users who want color have limited options. The glow can be switched off through Terminal commands or managed with a third-party app, but when lit it produces only white light. A free app such as LogoLight can make the logo pulse, breathe, follow the beat of playing music or flash Morse code.
Modifying the hardware is impractical, according to the teardown. Reaching the LEDs required removing the screen, which delaminated and broke during the process. An RGB modification would therefore mean voiding the warranty and risking a costly screen repair on a $3,000 laptop.
The case for color rests partly on Apple's stated commitment to gaming, since RGB lighting is a common fixture of gaming hardware. MacBooks are not gaming laptops, but multicolor LEDs could have served as an Easter egg. The article points to the touchscreen Mac, the iPhone Duo and HomeView as signs of experimentation in the early Ternus era, and suggests a future MacBook Air or MacBook Neo with a lit lid could adopt color.
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