[markkanof]

Do consumers really care about thin laptops or is it just that Apple (and other manufacturers) can't come up with any other more interesting ideas that they could use for marketing purposes. Light weight laptops I can see being interesting for when you actually have to move it around, or significantly longer battery life could be an attractive addition to laptops. It really seems like pushing so hard on the idea of how sexy thin laptops are just demonstrates that they are completely out of ideas. There must be something more meaningful that they could change on a laptop and push just as hard on that to convince people it is worth lusting over.

[logfromblammo]

I don't care about thin in laptops. I barely even care about weight. Once you're past the portability threshold where it is light enough and self-contained enough to be hand carried from place to place, and return to workstation functionality by plugging in no more than 3 cords, I'm done with size and weight. I simply don't spend that much time carrying a laptop around.

I really like the mil-spec ruggedized laptops. I look down a row of those, and it really strikes me how they're all the same size, they're covered in ports (behind little gasket-protected doors), and they are so unapologetic about size and weight that they have sturdy carry handles attached.

So what I really want most is a standardized form factor. Then my concern is for the closely related concepts of power, cooling, and heat dissipation. My Third choice would be 1920x1080 display resolution or better. After that, battery life. If you're designing your laptop to be too thin and light to accommodate a standard TRS audio mini-jack, you're not designing for me.

The other thing lappie makers are doing is touch screens, which are just awkward on a laptop, and usually unusable in a docking station anyway. Never mind about turning the function key row into a touchscreen.

[reaperducer]

I don't care about thin in laptops. I barely even care about weight. Once you're past the portability threshold where it is light enough and self-contained enough to be hand carried from place to place

I care about weight. A lot. Because I travel.

People on HN like to say a particular laptop is "light enough." Sure, if that's all your carrying. But if you have a bag or briefcase full of other things like documents, every ounce counts.

[logfromblammo]

I want to know who is making you carry paper on an airplane.

Even classified documents can be shipped. There's really no reason I can imagine for anyone to be hand-carrying paper documents in the passenger compartment of an airplane in 2018, outside of a diplomatic pouch. And in that case, the laptop probably has to be disposable anyway.

[romwell]

>I want to know who is making you carry paper on an airplane.

Um, some of us still use (gasp) paper notebooks and pens. Imagine that! (I'll stop using them when you give me something with comparable power consumption and handwriting latency).

Besides that, in my bag you'll find a Fuji X100 camera, a Polaroid Snap, a (yes, paper) passport, a wallet, a couple of chargers, a cell phone, some pens, allergy pills, etc.

All of that has weight.

As for shipping - one point of bringing something on a plane is that you can use it on the plane.

Anyway, the point is - weight matters. There are things other than the laptop that a lot of people carry when traveling - be it personal or business travel.

[thehashrocket]

My iPad pro with apple pencil actually does a really a good job of having handwriting latency and really good power consumption. I took it to a conference in Anaheim and spent an entire day taking notes on it. I've got the keyboard attachment so if i really need to be fast I can just flip it and go. However, to your point, it probably is heavier than a notebook and regular pencil, and it is one more thing to charge at some point. There's definitely pros and cons to it. I lean on it mostly because I probably will take it with me anyway, so having it, plus a notebook really is more weight, and having the ipad out is more convenient than having my mbp out at a conference. :/