Also monitor bezels on laptops have continued to get ever thinner (albeit this shrinkage has slowed down due to the physical constraints), and in many cases screens have gotten wider / less square, allowing allows ‘bigger’ screens without increasing all dimensions.

You look at the real footprints of laptops now vs a few years ago ago, a 14” laptop is really not too far off from older 13.3” ones:

e.g.

• 2019 ThinkPad T490 - 329 x 227 x 17.9 (12.95 x 8.94 x 0.7 inches)
• 2019 Thinkpad X390 - 312 x 217 x 16.9 mm
  (12.28 x 8.55 x 0.67 inches)
• 2025 ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 - 315.9 x 223.7 x 17.7 mm (12.44 x 8.81 x 0.7 inches)
• 2025 Thinkpad X13 Gen 6 - 299.3 x 207 x 17.7 mm (11.78 x 8.15 x 0.70 inches)

It’d be better to look at the footprint to determine what size you’re happy with, not screen size, but I realise it’s not as easy to do.


Surface Pro can work too… as mentioned above, tablets have taken a large market away from smaller laptops. While it’s not that easy to use on the lap, the Surface Pro is an a full-fat Windows device; they are now pushing ARM to consumers, look at the (more expensive) ‘for Business’ ones if you want Intel processors.