It’s back: The glowing Apple logo is finally back

The first MacBook Pro without Apple’s iconic backlit logo was released in 2016. Ten years later, it’s back.

For a long time, the problem with the illuminated Apple logo on the lid of its laptops was that it faced the wrong direction. It was positioned so that the user could see it while opening the lid, while then it was upside down for anyone passing by.

Never to miss out on good publicity, Apple flipped that logo. Even today its shining symbol shines on concert stages around the world.

It also tells you how long it’s been since those concert performers last updated. Because the first Apple laptop to avoid the illuminated logo was the 12-inch MacBook in 2015, and then the first MacBook Pro was in 2016.

What was it

It was more symbolic than technical. Apple simply cut a hole in the shape of its logo and inserted translucent plastic into it. Since the lid contained the backlight for the front display, there was enough illumination to make this logo have a warm, welcoming glow.

But it was still an extra layer for which space had to be found. As the MacBook Pro got thinner and lighter, thin won and light lost. Shortly after the first MacBook Pro in 2016 lost its illuminated logo, everyone did.

But he came back

Curiously, one of the features of the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR models is that they are thinner. The screen, in particular, is significantly thinner that Apple considers it a strong point.

It is a feature of Apple that uses tandem OLED display that eliminates the usual backlight and additional layers of screen. These layers made the screen clearer, but also meant that more power was needed to make the display visible.

And obviously more layers meant more width. So by switching to tandem OLED, Apple has saved a significant amount of space. In the new 14-inch model the screen is half a millimeter thinner, while in the 16-inch model it is almost a millimeter.

Despite achieving this subtlety, Apple chose to bring back the famous backlit logo. Maybe it’s once again a function of the illuminated screen filtering through, maybe it was possible to do this without adding such a thick piece of translucent plastic and relying on the LED backlight as before.

But whatever the reason and however it was done, Apple has quietly harked back to its distinctive past. Now it will shine from the stages again, and there will once again be seas of illuminated Apple logos in classrooms and events.

It wasn’t the end of the world when the logo disappeared, but if you were a longtime Mac user, you felt it. So this is a good day.

And since the logo disappeared under Tim Cook’s watch, it makes you wonder if it came back because of John Ternus. He hasn’t been CEO for very long, but he has been deeply integrated into the company’s engineering teams for most of his time at the company.