Four white LEDs illuminate the new MacBook Pro’s lid logo, with software matching its brightness to the screen. The design revives a feature Apple phased out years ago, but leaves the logo glowing in just one color—despite the obvious appeal of customizable RGB lighting.
The illuminated logo drew more attention at Apple CEO John Ternus’s announcement of the first touchscreen Mac last month than the OLED display or the thinner, lighter chassis, according to the source. Apple began phasing out light-up logos in 2015; the feature was gone by the 2018 MacBook Air redesign. Its return is a nostalgia play, and one that clearly struck a chord.
Older MacBook logos borrowed light from the screen’s backlight. OLED displays have no backlight, and an iFixit teardown found four white LEDs doing the job instead. Software links their brightness to the screen’s. Apple could have chosen RGB LEDs, allowing owners to set the logo to colors from red and orange to blue or violet. The source argues that colorful lighting would fit Apple’s stated seriousness about gaming, even though MacBooks are not gaming laptops.
There is no built-in color customization. Users can switch off the illumination with Terminal commands or adjust it through a third-party app. LogoLight, for example, can make the logo pulse or breathe, respond to music, or flash Morse code—but it cannot add color. iFixit also found that reaching the LEDs is difficult: the screen delaminated and broke during the teardown. That makes do-it-yourself RGB modifications a risky prospect for owners of a $3,000 laptop, with a potentially costly screen repair and warranty concerns.
The source sees RGB as a missed opportunity for a playful Easter egg, not a necessity. Apple’s touchscreen Mac, along with the iPhone Duo and HomeView, is presented as evidence of experimentation in the early Ternus era. The writer suggests a future MacBook Air or MacBook Neo could be another chance for Apple to give the logo more color.
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