Huge... Oh really?

I've been watching a lot of internal traffic and discussion about laptop sizes.  I find it interesting that when people receive a 15.4" widescreen laptop, they think the laptop is huge.

Oh really?

Huge is relative.  Yes, it is going to be "huge" compared to the under powered 12" tablet PC you used to have.  It's going to be huge compared to the 14" laptop you used to have.  It's obviously going to be huge compared to the slick 13" laptop on the market.  But huge?

Oh really!

From my experience vantage point, even the Lenovo ThinkPad T61p with the 15.4" and it's 9 cell battery isn't huge. And frankly considering past acquaintances, it isn't all that heavy.

I think we need a time machine.  Then we could send some of these young whipper snappers back in time and hand them an Informer dialup terminal connected to a MVS mainframe.  I would love to film that.  Can you imagine their fear when they discover 1200 baud and no Internet?

I can see the cold turkey shakes when they discover Google and YouTube aren't there.  I can see their face when they attempt to look up COBOL verbs.  "Sorry dude, you're going to have to use that thing on the shelf.  You know, that thing called a book!!!"  Ha ha ha.  They would think they are being Punked.  Heck for that matter, the MIPS in the T61p is higher than the first mainframe I ever used.

Ok, back to the topic.

Here are some specs for some current laptops, laptops I own or possess, and other laptops and tablets in use by Microsoft employees.  As you can see in the specs, there isn't a HUGE difference in the size and shape unless you are comparing the MacBook Pro to the massive Dell XPS M1730.  The T61p weight is with the 9 cell battery and two hard drives.  One in the primary bay, and one in the Ultrabay hard drive caddy.  I am approximating the weight since I don't have a good digital scale.

Most of the other weights were taken from published specs and are likely the laptop with the smallest battery they make, a single hard drive, etc.  Some of the laptops or tablets in the list don't support using another drive in the bay where a DVD/CD drive normally is.  The MacBook Pro is a good example.  What you see is what you get with it.