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Comment by tra3 | Hacker News Reader

I remember coveting the librettos! And then the slim sony laptops. These days I dont think there’s anything better than a MacBook Air though.

What’s the use case for one of these? Data centers?

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There's almost nothing in that Libretto size from the mainstream companies. But there are small companies making 8 and 10 inch laptops. GPD seems the most popular brand but there are several you can find on Amazon, Aliexpress, and Ebay.

And then there's the Steam Deck, and variants from Asus and Lenovo. But with those you have to supply your own KB + stand. I guess they wouldn't quite count.

Yeah, I had a GPD Micro PC prior to this, and I liked it... but the hinge snapped and replacing it seems like a pretty involved process. The build quality of the Pocket Reform feels much better, and it's a lot more straightforward to get inside and swap things out than with the GPD.

Travel is one use case. I loved the form factor of MBA 11 for ssh and local use of Mutt.

I've been keeping an eye on MNT Pocket as a substitute. Reviews look great.

The MBA 11 was nice because it fitted in an airplane tray really well.

There’s a thread about 11” Chromebooks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41176578

Might be a good option.

Thanks, I know, I posted that thread :)

I can imagine them being useful in a datacenter, yeah. So far for my own use it's been nice for writing at my nearby coffee shop, because it takes up less space on the table than a full-sized laptop and the small screen seems to help avoid distractions (so far, haven't had it for that long, etc).

And I don't travel long distances that often, but it probably fits better on train or airplane tray tables than a bigger laptop would too. I'm always worried the person in front of me will recline a bit when my laptop's in just the wrong spot and it'll shatter my screen from the top, haha.

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