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Comment by JamesAdir | Hacker News Reader

Why do we need thinner laptops? You can hardly work on any of the current models today, which their almost zero height keys. We need better keyboards and not thinner laptops.

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If you can make the frame thinner under the keyboard area by moving some computing components around to areas that are normally housing cooling components, then you can have a longer travel distance for the keys. So, not necessarily a thinner laptop, but thinner where it would count.

"Talk about thin laptops long enough and people will start to buy into it" (A variation on Goebbels' big lie)

I reckon you bought into it.

> "Talk about thin laptops long enough and people will start to buy into it" (A variation on Goebbels' big lie)

I think that analogizing persistent marketing propaganda to genocidal fascist propaganda is going a bit far.

You realise I was not making a point about fascism and mass murder but about dishonest ways to change people's minds – you got that, right? You understood, yes? I was talking about computer hardware not death camps, yes? You didn't carefully misunderstand the point I was making at all, did you?

Are you fucking serious dude? lmao

Hard disagree. Shorter key travel is a matter of preference. I quite like the ultra-short-travel of my laptops even though I have half a dozen mechanical keyboards that I use on my desktops. It would be nice to have more options, but I'd take a thin and light over a chunky laptop any day.

> You can hardly work on any of the current models today

Tell that to the millions of people who work on them daily without issue.

Weight is a much more useful metric than height for a laptop.

I'd like if we got to the point where the computer was on the back of the monitor so it'd be easier to cool, and then the bottom would be dedicated to peripherals, including way better keyboards.

We're already there with tablets (Surface, iPad) with attached keyboards. Personally, I prefer the bulk and weight of the device to be on the table, not propped up, but some folks love this configuration.

A good keyboard, large battery and connectors should weight enough to balance it

The Surface Book 2 sort of did this, most of the computer was behind the screen, the base only had a keyboard, more batteries, and a GPU (which could be disabled so you could detach the screen).

It got really hot really fast if you did any graphics/video work on it, even more than regular laptops do.

It is an unfortunate trend brought by Apple with no key travel. Part of the reason why I am still sticking to my MacBook Pro 2015.

Never heard this complain before

Definitely a new one for me and an easy 'what? It works really well...'

i have mixed feelings about thin&light laptops... i thought i wouldn't mind a bit more weight, but after getting a 14" macbook pro for work i appreciated my personal x270 (and my old T440) so much more.

the macbook pro is crazy heavy.

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