These are the thinnest laptops in the world

Laptops are shrinking. No, not just in terms of yearly sales, but physically too.

Years after the MacBook Air and its Ultrabook counterparts shrunk the mainstream laptop down to manila envelope levels, a new wave of notebooks have set out to make those devices look positively tubby.

There's a rejuvenated effort to make the high-end laptop an object of desire, and the result has been some really, really thin machines.

In many ways, this pursuit of slimness is counterproductive. Less space can often mean less functionality. Ports are sacrificed, keyboards give less feedback, and it's not uncommon for things to feel underpowered. All of that gets amplified when you consider how these things usually aren't cheap. At their worst, they can approach parody.

Still, the market is improving, and all of these things are inherently easy to take on the go.

So, after browsing the shopping pages of every major laptop brand, we've gathered up the thinnest laptops you can buy today. If nothing else, they'll take a load off your back.