While considering physicality, functionality, price margins, etc., size has been one of the most dramatic changes we’ve seen in our devices. There’s also been a sort of wave pattern regarding this. Take smartphones for example, which since their debut, have all been about their true significance- to be mobile and smaller than anything you’ve ever made a phone call on. Funny thing is how quickly that changed. Those itty (flip) phones, which fit in the palm of your hands, went through some seriously fast-paced transformations, especially as their adequacies began to require larger platforms. Standard 4-inch smartphones starting reaching 5 inches, and then the larger than ever phablet, a hybrid between tablet and smartphone, was born. Still a viable party in the mobile phone world (folks love their phablets for their multifunctional nature/ ability to act as a laptop would), it’s safe to say there has been a natural adjustment in the mobile device market. With the exception of something like chargers or earbuds, the focus, in both mobile phones and other devices, is to offer larger sizes. Not only are they proving to be most popular by consumers, but bigger fits better components and larger batteries.

Despite the amazing things you can you with tiny motherboards such as the Raspberry Pi, tiny laptops are a more acquired taste. These days, the ideal laptop size is something between 11 and 14 inches. As laptops are categorized by their display sizes, the most popular 11 to 12 inchers provide the ideal portability factor, usually weighing an average of 3 pounds. Larger, 13 to 14-inch laptops provide both portability and functionality, and if they master the 4 pounds or under goal, these are generally seen as an ideal machine.

Overall, most popular laptops are smaller than ever. All of this discussion, and we’re actually here to unfold something so small, you’re going to say “Awww”, or else you have no heart. So behold, the smallest computer you’ve probably ever seen (I mean, look at it next to a MacBook Air!). Dubbed the GPD Pocket, this crowdfunded machine is a fully-functioning Windows 10 Home or Ubuntu 16.04 UMPC / laptop. The device measures a mere 180 x 106 x 18.5mm, with a 7-inch, 1920 x 1200 multi-touch display, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and a CNC precise all-in-one body made of magnesium and alloy. Internals include an Intel Atom x7-Z8700 chip, threading at 1.6GHz, an integrated GPU, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 128GB of internal storage, all run by a 7,000mAh polymer lithium battery. Ports include a USB 3.0 port, a USB Type-C port, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

So, all of these are great specs. That’s the understatement of the century- all of these are highly comparable specs to the likes of Apple’s MacBook Air and the Microsoft Surface 3! Plus, you can run Ubuntu if you’re not a Windows pal, and the thing gets an alleged 12 hours of battery life with one charge! Also miniature is the price, at $399 on the Indiegogo page, where the company claims its product will be the leader and practitioner for the next gen laptop, period. Yep, laptops could be going in our pockets just as our smartphones do. Just hurry, because retail price won’t stay so small, with $599 for the GPD expected to happen soon.