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How can MacBooks be so slim compared to others laptops

9 points by donboscow ↗ HN
There are so many laptops out there - Thinkpad, SurfaceBooks, Dell Inspiron, etc. How come they are so bulkier compared to Macbooks? Macbooks are so slim and lightweight, while an Inspiron or Thinkpad is so bulky and thick. Which engineering aspect is superior in case of Macbooks that makes it slimmer and less bulkier compared to those? Is it the OS - the way it has been written, it requires less cooling and hence lesser bulk? Or is it something else?

21 comments

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nhumrich
The price. You seem to be comparing MacBooks to cheaper laptops. "High end" laptops such as Lenovo X1 Carbon, are slimmer, and lighter than MacBooks. Another reason however is thermal distribution. A MacBook shell acts as a heat sync, but a plastic shell does not. So MacBooks don't need as much airflow.
donboscow
So, using aluminium as body material is one of the factors why Macbooks are so slim? Why can't the bulkier laptops use the same? Price?
tony-allan
A higher price allows the use of particular materials, precision engineering, and slim custom components.

Some is a huge R&D spend, the bill of materials, and assembly techniques.

donboscow
Yeah, I get the R&D part, what I want to know, what specific improvement here does the R&D here contribute to?
coldtea
"the use of particular materials, precision engineering, and slim custom components"

All of the above require R&D. Techniques for unibody construction for example required a lot of R&D in machining parts, precision opening of ports, and so on.

kingkongjaffa
The hard part is also not doing it once really well, it's doing it 100's of millions of times also really well.
GekkePrutser
Carbon fibre's lower heat conductivity can be a good thing too though. Less heat leaking through to the keyboard deck where it could bother the user.
sircastor
I think a contributing factor is Apple’s decisions to solder everything directly on the motherboard. No sockets, no plugs, they cut out a lot of volume at the cost of flexibility.
GekkePrutser
They're not. A company like Chuwi makes $300 laptops that are just as thin :) https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chuwi-GemiBook-CWI528-Laptop-R...

Of course you're not getting the same specs or build quality for that price but it's comparable to MacBook thickness.

I think the other players you mention just have less desire to make them as thin as possible. I really prefer my work T490s ThinkPad to my work MacBook Pro. It's got more ports, a phenomenally better keyboard, upgradable internals and more. All for a few millimeters extra thickness and no extra weight. They've made the right choice IMO.

skavi
Your premise is incorrect. There are high end Windows laptops with chassis just as thin as MacBooks.

See the Surface or XPS family.

nijave
Thinkpads and some other business oriented laptops tend to be field serviceable so they're a little bigger to accommodate easier repair.

As others have mentioned, there are Ultrabooks made by other companies comparable and some even smaller

HP Envy has similar dimensions and the 15" version is slightly lighter than the MBP

Mikeb85
Honestly, because most emphasize function over form.

The most comfortable laptop I ever used was a T430 ThinkPad. It was thick but the cooling was fantastic, you could put it on your lap all day and it never got warm.

Now I have a laptop about as thin as a MacBook and it's significantly less comfortable than that old ThinkPad.

Also, if you do want MacBook thin, there's the Dell XPS line, Asus Zenbooks, Samsung Galaxy books, etc...

alexfromapex
Because Apple has lots of financial resources? Especially for the the MacBook Air, they just aim for lightweight and design it to be slim and light from square one.
max_
It's the new cooling technology.

The new MacBooks are fanless.

fomine3
Weight and footprint are my concern, but not thickness for me. Slim laptop sacrifices keyboards (for who dislike thinner keyboards), interfaces, and cooling (this is no longer an issue for Apple).
bmitc
Are they? Compared to XPS and Surface Laptops?

Also, Macbooks are in no way lightweight. Nothing Apple makes, including their iPhones, is lightweight.

willio58
My MacBook Air was pretty damn light..
bmitc
You're right. The Air branded products, the iPad Air and Macbook Air, are counters to what I said about nothing Apple makes is lightweight.

Although, the MacBook Air is the same weight as the 13.5" Surface Laptop, so it's not like the Apple is magically lighter. And according to the specs, the Surface Laptop is actually thinner.

4oh9do
> Macbooks are so slim and lightweight, while an Inspiron or Thinkpad is so bulky and thick.

What are you talking about? Plenty of laptops are more lightweight than Macbooks such as Vaio, Acer, Asus, etc. And a 12" Macbook is only about half a pound heavier than a 13" Thinkpad.

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/4219-the-lightest-ultrabooks...

_xerces_
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