[derefr]

"Bigger screen" (i.e. being bigger on the length/width dimension) is a bad thing in this discussion. Some people want a programming/writing laptop that fits in a handbag, so that they don't have to decide to bring it, but can just leave it in their bag the way many people do with an iPad.

[Eji1700]

Amen. I have a GPD Pocket 4 as my go to because it, a second screen, a 40% keyboard, and the arc mouse all fit in my surprisingly small bag along with chargers, cords, and a bunch of non laptop related stuff (e reader, pens/notebooks, some small tools, a miyoo, etc).

It is, however, an expensive fucking device. $2300 maxed out these days (which I think is $800ish more than i paid. Hurray ram...) or $1400 min specs (which are still quite nice).

I'm glad to see other options at that size (Pocket 4 is 8.8", but my second screen is 10") but a literal quarter of the cost. 80% of what I do on the pocket could be done something like this Minibook, and I don't give a shit if the keyboard/mouse sucks because I've got my own anyways so long as I can tent it.

There will be those days where I might need to do some local heavy lifting and regret not having the Pocket, but I'm also happy to know if it dies on me tomorrow I've got options that aren't shell out another $1k for a tool mostly used for coding.

[bergie]

Absolutely. The 11" MacBook Air was the best laptop Apple ever made.

[stefanfisk]

I yearn for an updated version of the 12” MacBook with modern specs and keyboard. The 13” Air is way too large to be the smallest MacBook ;_;

[rahoulb]

I really liked the 12" MacBook (although my all time favourite computer was the 12" PowerBook G4 - chunky by today's standards but I just loved it).

I saw a review of the MacBook Neo where the reviewer was yearning after the 12" - but suggested that Apple has made UI elements so big with such ridiculous spacing and border radius that it would be almost unusable at anything less than 13".

Which would not surprise me in the least - I struggle with my 16" MBP and this crappy UI "framework".

[MrDOS]

> it would be almost unusable at anything less than 13"

Native resolution on a 13" MacBook Air is already pretty unusable. Out of the box, the 13" MacBook Air (physical screen resolution 2560x1664) is configured with display scaling so that the “looks like” resolution is 1470x956 (i.e., macOS renders everything at 2x1470x956 – 2940x1912 – and then scales it down to match the display for output). If you dial the “looks like” resolution down to 1280x832 (so that the rendering resolution matches the output resolution; because, say, you prefer that every UI element not be a little bit blurry from being scaled down), you'll find yourself unbelievably short (ha) on vertical resolution. You basically have to turn dock hiding on. Even then, fixed-position headers are very common on websites these days, so between that and browser chrome, you'll often find that actual webpage content is crammed into the bottom half of the display.

[rjrjrjrj]

Or put the dock on the right side of the screen.

In my experience, 13.3" MBA is fine for many applications. A little smaller (eg 12.5") might still be usable. 11" would not work with current MacOS.

[fouc]

gotta have dock hiding & menu bar hiding & compact toolbar/tab settings for browser. only 80-90px of wasted height. The rest is web view. I can't think of any website I frequent having that fixed-position header either, so I'm gucci.

[MrDOS]

I often use my laptop for reference while cooking, and I find recipe websites are the most common and egregious offenders.

[LawnGnome]

My partner (who isn't in tech, and isn't generally interested in tech) would probably literally stand in line for an updated version of the 12" MacBook on day one.

[djfergus]

Yes, same here. I can’t help but think they had an iPhone SOC planned for it (tiny motherboard, only one usb-c) but the hw/os team weren’t ready.

[hyperhello]

It was nice, but the screen bezel was huge. The latest 13 is about the same size and weight.

[petesergeant]

The _feel_ is very different though, even if the dimensions aren’t numerically. It was around half a cm at its thinnest, it was 250g lighter, and 23mm less deep.

I think at those sizes, what reads as small differences give an outsized experiential factor.

[rkomorn]

I loved mine but I'd be lying if I said it gave me three years of acceptable performance.

Sure, I can blame Chrome and JS, but ultimately, the core 2 duo and 8GB RAM did not keep up very long.

[kennywinker]

There was an 11” air with an i5/i7 - i splurged for 16gb of ram when i bought it in 2015 and it lasted me 10 years.

It still works, but a few specific apps started to really drag on it.

[rkomorn]

I guess, but that kinda means I would've needed to improve my 11" MBA's longevity by buying another, more recent, 11" MBA though. :)

[JessieJanie]

It really pays longevity wise to get max ram!

[rkomorn]

Sure, but the 11" MBA I bought was max specs at the time it was released and the point is: it didn't last long.

[incanus77]

Still using mine for occasional hacking, running Mint. Gets about two hours of battery. Great keyboard.

[petesergeant]

Part of that I think was that it was the first SSD laptop many people had had, so the fast boot up times were mind blowing. I had two, a work and a personal one, and I miss them terribly.

[winrid]

I guess. 14" is about as small as I can use personally, that already hurts my hands

[bee_rider]

With laptop sized screens, I’m always tempted to try to have two windows side by side. 10 inch netbooks effectively dissuade that bit of folly.

[pizza234]

Confirmed. Minibooks are amazing in cramped locations (for example, airplane seats), or just to always keep in the bag for support.

There's nothing in the market like them, which is a shame - I think a slightly better quality Minibook (Chuwis are plain crap) would be a very solid laptop.

[Eji1700]

I just responded above, but you might want to look at the GPD Pocket 4.

It is NOT cheap ($1300 min spec) but it's also quite a bit more powerful and with better ports (full size HDMI and Ethernet). It's not for everyone, but it blows my mind how little competition it has given how useful its been for me over the years.

[pizza234]

8.8" is a bit too small for my use case, but... oh my, their Win Max 2 is a very impressive machine (10.1") - I'm really shocked at the size. I'm confused by the price, though - 6500$??

[Zardoz84]

a Steam deck with a small form factor keyboard?

[ikurei]

I so wanted to love the Steam Deck, but it's a device with a 7 inch screen that occupies a massive volume on your bag. Unless you know you're going to play a fair ammount, it's not worth carrying around.

It's a fantastic console, but a mediocre general purpose computer.

[ndsipa_pomu]

A Steam Deck is a bit more lumpy than the Minibook. I find it a lot easier to put my Minibook into a rucksack as it's thin, so it can just slide between stuff. The Steam Deck is quite a lot bigger, though I often take both on holiday as they fill different needs.

[wishfish]

Legion Go (1st Gen with the removable controllers) would be better. Without the controllers, it's basically a 8.8 inch PC tablet. Would be a great portable machine. With an added bonus of the controllers converting to a desktop mouse.

[LoganDark]

A "programming" laptop should be powerful enough to run code, no?

[kennywinker]

If your code won’t run on this machine, you’re the problem not the machine (outside of niche processor heavy stuff like video editing and ai crap).

[LoganDark]

Compiling Rust is expensive, for instance.

[dspillett]

Depends what code you are programming. Unless you are doing significant number crunching, 3D work, or local GenAI, there is an awful lot that spec can do. If you are working on a multi-user system and it is slow processing your actions as a single tester on this, then you have a heck of a lot of optimising ahead unless you want your production users to hate you!

Maybe you'd save running a large test suite until back at base with the branch checked out on something beefier, but for on-the-go coding I expect this spec would do just fine for many. The reviewer's comments about the keyboard would be my concern, not the limits if what it can run.

[winrid]

This laptop is plenty powerful enough. The N150[0] is similar single threaded to some 8th gen i7s which many still use to code (including myself). Should run many claude sessions at once, too. I am not sure I'd want to compile large Rust projects on it, but Node/C++/Java works fine.

[0] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id=6304&cpu=Intel+N150

[1] https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?id=3064&cpu=Intel+Core+...

[LoganDark]

Claude is just an HTTP client, so I would hope it could run many of those at once...

[t-3]

I was running gentoo on a 2011 Macbook Air for years with no problems. These computers are more than fast enough to compile and run code. They aren't going to by my first choice for reencoding video or running a build server, but for local development you really don't need a lot unless you're working on the type of stuff that really actually requires special or very powerful hardware.

[71bw]

Switch to a backpack or just leave the laptop in your car...?

[dolmen]

So I would have to buy a car to carry a laptop?

[dspillett]

Or get what fits your preferred routine if available, instead of changing to match others?

Though my experience with this brand is mixed at best so I'd personally give this one a miss, especially given the reviewer's comments on the keyboard.