[dorfsmay]

I wish laptop manufacturers stopped carrying about ugly and spent more time on functionality such as ethernet port and easy to upgrade and repair, sell it to me without memory (or memory at a normal price), etc...

I don't buy laptops to look good.

[vmurthy]

> sell it to me without memory (or memory at a normal price), etc...

That's the catch isn't it? Manufacturers have a lot of markup on things like RAM and SSD that they'd rather force you to upgrade on their websites than sell without memory.

Anecdata: I was trying to buy a couple of Dell Laptops for our office and the Dell US website has a customize option. Base model had 4 GB RAM and the upgrade to 8 GB RAM was .. drum roll .. approx $67 [1] . Comparable one on Amazon? $37-ish [2]. You will have a lot of fun doing similar comparison with SSDs.

[1]https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-PC4-19200-2400MHz-SODIMM-M471...

[lone_haxx0r]

Those two are not mutually exclusive, unless you buy the premise that thinner = better (I don't).

A thick laptop with many ports can look just as good as a thin one.

[masklinn]

> Those two are not mutually exclusive, unless you buy the premise that thinner = better (I don't).

Even if you do, they're still not necessarily exclusive: ifixit tore down a bunch of HP devices, and even the "Elite X2 G4" two-in-one — not exactly a beastly looking device https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Elite-x2-G4-detachable-will... — got 9/10 on repairability: https://www.ifixit.com/News/hp-makes-the-modern-repairable-d...

[dorfsmay]

I have been fairly impressed by Del hardware. Unfortunately, you can no longer get a tracking on their 13 inches (and they never had 3 button).

[dorfsmay]

I agree with thinner ≠ better.

So where is the thinner obsession coming from? Why are they removing all the ports?

Isn't it because of fashion?

Functionality and esthetics do not have to be mutually exclusive, but the people designing laptops don't seem to be aware of that.

[ElFitz]

It could be because they are gutless unimaginative trend-following sheeps.

It could also be because they just try to sell whatever it is they think most of their customers believe they want / need (wether or not said customers are right is a whole other matter)