Make More Thin Notebooks

How come more companies don't make notebooks as thin as the MacBook/Pro at 1 inch? Particularly 17" notebooks. Just about everything else is over 1.5 inches. Why are PC notebooks so clunky looking?

 

Widespread use of LED backlit displays will help to reduce the overall thickness.

At the moment I think the cooling system is one of the key design headaches. I believe Apple have partly gone around this by using the whole notebook as a metal heatsink, but if you want a cool notebook with a quiet fan then the fan needs to be reasonably big.

John

 

If Apple can turn the thing into a heatsink, then why doesn't someone else come along and mimic the design. I happen to think that many people buy MacBooks because they are thin and sleek more than anything else. Why this insistence on designing notebook platform to accommodate a high level gaming. I think most buyers would prefer a thinner design.

 

You have to consider that, when laptop designers step up to the drawing board, they have alot of things to worry about.

- Performance - the laptop must perform acceptably; usually well enough to meet high consumer expectations

- Heat - is a laptop's worst enemy. A thinner laptop means that there will be less breathing space for components, and heat may become trapped in the laptop. Heatsinks and fans solve this problem for the most part, but then you have to sacrifice thinness. Also remember that heat can shorten the lifetimes of various laptop components.

- Thickness - the laptop design must prove to be as thin as possible

- Accessibility - the laptop motherboard and chassis must be designed to allow users easy access to key components, and allow users a convenient placement of ports

- Weight - the laptop must be as light as possible

- Cost - the laptop also has to be cheap!

Can you design a laptop that satisfies ALL of these factors? It's quite difficult because, in order to have a thin laptop, you have to sacrifice heat control. Satisfying any of these factors always means compromising another factor. The thing with the MBP is that, although it's possible to copy that design, it may not be cost effective.

 

The MBP compromises many things to be 'thin'. One is upgradability, everything but the RAM and HD is soldered on, and it's still one hell of a journey to remove those parts. The heat issue is there, but the GPU is underclocked just a bit to compensate for that.

Isn't the W2 a bit over 1.4 inches?

 

Have a look at Sony's TZ serie

 

HP 8710 is 1.3 in (at front) at the back it's over 1.5 inches. Can't buy a Samsung M60 in the US.

Not 17 inches.

These are pretty much the only things that regular people upgrade anyways.

The W2, which I own, is the thinnest 17 inch I could find at the time + it weighs less than 8 lbs. It just surprises me that no one else can make a 1 inch notebook, but Apple.

 

In Quarter 2 of 2008 when Montevina is launched, notebooks will be up to 25% slimmer.