It seems that notebooks and smartphones have continuously become thinner and lighter. Some may see this as a good thing, but many others accuse company’s of sacrificing quality for size.
Let’s take the recent MacBook Pro for example. This author owns the 13-inch version with the Touch Bar and loves the device. For a writer, it’s a perfect combination of portability, power, sound, and typing. It’s also great for editing photos using Photoshop. However, it also seems like the device should have been an upgrade to the MacBook Air line rather than the MacBook Pro.
Some think the new MacBook Pro is more like the MacBook Air. [Image by Daryl Deino]
The new MacBook Pro has received some mixed reviews from different media outlets.
“I may come off sounding quite critical of the new MacBook Pro, but the truth is that I really do like it. The hardware is incredible, macOS is a joy to use, and I don’t want to give up this screen and keyboard. It’s a fantastic laptop on build alone. But everywhere I look, it feels like this incarnation of the MacBook Pro is shooting for a future it can’t quite reach,” claimed Jacob Kastrenakes of the Verge , adding that Apple had to sacrifice a lot of important things.
One thing that Apple had to sacrifice is battery life. Bloomberg claimed that Apple had intended to put in a bigger battery, but the thin design couldn’t fit it.
“In the run-up to the MacBook Pro’s planned debut this year, the new battery failed a key test, according to a person familiar with the situation. Rather than delay the launch and risk missing the crucial holiday shopping season, Apple decided to revert to an older design.”
Perhaps Apple could have made the MacBook Pro slightly larger, which would have allowed for a larger battery and all the traditional ports. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is a great laptop, but it has turned off a lot of creative users looking for a “Pro” device rather than a paper-thin one with sacrifices.
As Samsung has learned, making a device as thin as possible can blow up in your face — literally. It hasn’t been proven yet, but many people believe that Samsung’s trying to fit such a strong battery in such a thin case is what caused the explosions. Android Central discussed the situation last month .
“Now a report from engineering firm Instrumental claims to have solved the mystery. The cause of the catastrophic Note 7 battery failures, the firm’s CEO says, basically has to do with the battery being too big. In her report, Anna Shedletsky concludes that there wasn’t enough space around the battery to allow for various manufacturing tolerances, and the slight expansion of the battery through use.”
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 became the biggest recall disaster in smartphone history. [Image by Daryl Deino]
The article adds that there was less than 0.1mm between the machined pocket and the very top of the battery. Basically, all the internals are very constrained. Had Samsung made the device just slightly thicker, not only would Note 7 buyers not care, but Samsung would have saved itself the billions of dollars they lost in the recall.
Although the 2016 MacBook Pro and Galaxy Note 7 have become major PR problems, not all ultra-thin devices have caused problems. Dell’s unbelievably thin XPS-13 has been well received by critics and customers. However, the higher-powered versions can get quite hot. The same goes with the thin (but not Dell thin) Lenovo Yoga 910 2-in-1.
Will the anorexic laptop and smartphone phase continue in 2017? If it does, then companies have more to lose than win.
