I’ve tried 13”, 14”, 15”, and 16”. 14” is where it’s at.

I've bought tablets multiple times thinking it could replace it, it just isn't the same. It's a real shame that particular form factor has been lost, as we could probably easily have an m4 air in that size. I'd buy one in a heart beat now that Apple has remembered how to make good keyboards again.

Even though it was tiny,

Nowadays, I'd say 14" is the sweet spot. Compact enough to easily fit in a bag and be taken basically anywhere, without having to sacrifice much if anything in terms of functionality/capability.

With screen bezels reduced to almost nothing, a modern 14" is pretty comparable in size to a 12" model from yesteryear.

Sadly all of them have spotty Linux support, and a Windows device is no use to me as a travel companion, for which they might be great solutions otherwise.

There is also the GPD Pocket 4 as a high class option, 8.8″, but that's too expensive for me for the few days a year the device might be in use. Similar for the One-Netbook 5, besides that being not in stock. Both of these look like the models the three above copy.

Old netbooks seem to be a no-go, they are all too chunky and weak and can't even play videos in proper resolutions (reviews of the time suggest that Intel managed to equip the later netbooks with a "better" processor that lacked hardware support for video decoding). MacBook Air 11" sounds like a good option at first, but with the huge bezels it's not actually that small, not smaller than a modern 13" Macbook Air, is it? And I'm unclear on how well the old Macbook would work with Linux now.

If I missed a great option, or one of the cheap ones is actually fine with Linux now - though the Chuwi gets new revisions regularly, so that's hard to guarantee - please let me know.

I am more than happy to lug something bigger and heavier about for performance sake because whatever it is I am doing when I get that laptop out is going to be development or sysop work based and there is a good chance I will need some performance and screen space to get the job done. I can live with something smaller if the laptop can be docked to a couple of screens and keyboard and mouse but historically I have always preferred bigger laptops when that isn't possible.

At the 8" size category, a Pixel 9 Pro Fold coupled with a decent foldable keyboard, perhaps something like [3], is a killer combination. My personal favorite keyboard in the foldable category was the TextBlade [4], which, sadly, never materialized.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_701

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Vaio_P_series

[3] https://www.amazon.com/ProtoArc-Ergonomic-Foldable-XK03-Blue...

[4] https://www.fastcompany.com/91249548/waytools-textblade-pock...

If money were no object I would pick 16" or bigger laptop, under 2kg. Bigger screen is always better for me.

I agree 14" is the best size, unless you want a desktop replacement, to keep the wires out of the way, in which I would go for 16" or 17".

But if I'm going into a small airplane (ex: Spirit Airlines), such a laptop is impossible to use.

It really depends on what your on-the-go space is. 15" seems like the overall standard to me however.

After years of large MBp I switched to 15 inch MB air. Then the 13 inch. It’s moment of inertia is closer to the palm holding - i.e., it feels very light.

Screen is a bit tight. So all I do I crank up the size (setResX), put on pair of 0.5 readers and voila instant large screen. I can go all the way to 2560x and still read and work.

"Why the Macbook Pro 17" was the greatest laptop ever made" - https://themostbeautifulworld.com/blog/macbook-pro-17-vs-16-...

I replaced it with a X200 and then X220 Thinkpad, which is still what I use for everyday computing needs. At 12.5" it works well for me, and even that is a tad bit large. I would happily go with a laptop with the same performance specs with a 9" screen. (Although, I doubt anything else would support the same onboard storage options my current X220 has: mSATA, SATA, SD card, and NVme in the ExpressCard slot are a very convenient mix for me.)

It's big enough to work as a second (or third) display when docked and also small enough to be used and carried pretty much anywhere.

It's also chonky enough to be sturdy to carry and have enough ports for everything I need.

So you want a 13" Air. Go buy one. They're pretty good, I've been doing all my work on a succession of them since like the second revision.

13" Air: 11.97 × 8.46". A4: 11.7 × 8.3".

The actual screen is only slightly smaller than an A4 page.

I am definitely going this route with my homelab setup. More people should do this, but a lot of techies even are happy to use a cloud platform.

But the netbook size mode seems to be underrepresented. Huge fan of the Air 11.6" or the MacBook 12" with an M chip.

The current 13" M-series Airs seem a little confusing to me -- the two largest dimensions are practically the same as the current MBP, so for my use-case (i.e.: not carrying a backpack) I basically have to carry a bag the exact same size as if I were going to carry the MBP, and the extra 300g (or 0.7 lb) is meaningless in terms of portability.

It feels like the Air is no longer really so Air-y, which is a shame.