Hypothetical Thickness Preferences

Framework Laptop 12
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I’m curious what ranges of thickness (not weight) most people here would consider ideal or acceptable for a 12” laptop. By “thickness”, I mean either or both of:

  1. The measure from the keyboard key surfaces to the opposing parallel surface, which may or may not include some sort of feet or stand-offs for air flow.
  2. The measure of distance through the visual display (i.e. perpendicular to the visual display plane).

One benefit to a thin laptop is that it’s easier to fit into a backpack, suitcase, or such, assuming there would be no risk of it snapping. Some benefits to a thick laptop are that it can fit a larger battery, offer more modular components, and cool more powerful tech specs. The mainstream market always seems to prefer thinner consumer electronics, although I’m never sure how representative mass-market product design trends are of consumers’ actual preferences. I’m curious what people here prefer.

Personally, I don’t mind very thick laptops and I’m uncomfortable with laptops that feel thin enough to snap accidentally (in general) or intentionally using only my hands. Even if I knew some very thin laptop were somehow categorically invulnerable to snapping, I would probably still feel uncomfortable with it because of my intuition for the prospect. I also find thin laptops uncomfortable to hold/carry with my hand/fingers wrapped at least 180° or so around an edge, which is how I normally do while their lids are closed or while convertibles are in tablet mode. I specified the angle there because a laptop’s thinness doesn’t seem to bother me when I’m supporting it from both below and behind with one hand.

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I mean, you’re asking a super biased demographic here lol.

That said, I personally prefer thinner devices. I like the FW12’s thickness, but it’s borderline, so I wouldn’t want it thicker than this. I really like the thickness of MacBooks, and for me that’s “ideal”, but I hold repairability in higher regard than aesthetics (hence why I’m here).

Carrying it is of no concern, on thicker devices I grip them as you described, while on thinner devices I cradle them more, I support their weight on the last phalanges of my fingers while using the rest of my hand to press it into my torso. I will switch to that method if I need more security for thicker laptops too (i.e. walking up and down stairs, having to move a bit faster, having to take up less space like in an elevator etc.).

Transporting in backpacks is not an issue either, I always use a sleeve, and I only use stiff padded backpacks, so bending is not a thing regardless.

Obviously though, it also depends on the type of laptop. A 2-in-1 like the FW12 should be thinner anyway, as otherwise using it as a tablet becomes rather uncomfortable if it’s thicker (and as I said, the 12 is borderline already on that). If I want a powerful machine I’d rather it be thicker for cooling, as otherwise what I’m gaining in thinness I lose in performance (via throttling), or lose on an external cooling pad or so.

TL;DR no exact numbers from me, but ideally somewhere between the very thin MacBooks and the FW12, the lower the better. I am biased towards thinness because I have a desktop, so I would never look for a powerful laptop, so I have no need of extra cooling capacity. I am happy to sacrifice some thinness for repairability and modularity, but up to a point.

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