Surface Book has 3:2 which is really nice, quite expensive machine though (I love mine, and have been lucky not to have any of the issues that seemed to plague them in their early days)

The Surface Book has a great screen but my god that machine was an absolute nightmare for the ~2 months I had it. Microsoft seriously screwed up on QC.

Not to mention it was just way over-engineered. All people were asking for was a Surface laptop. Microsoft's own MacBook Pro but they just had to do something "unique" and it was a mess. Now we have the Surface Laptop that comes with a gimped version of Windows[0]. Honestly I just don't understand Microsoft.

[0] Yes you can upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro for free until the end of the year but then it is an extra $50!

Isn't the Surface Book the one that iFixIt rated as "[unrepairable, made of glue]"?

I'd be thrilled if someone put the 13" 4:3 (or should we call it 16:12 for marketing?) screen from the iPad Pro in a laptop.

my kingdom for anything better than 16:9 in a thinkpad

though it looks like other manufacturers besides lenovo and apple are starting to make good laptops now, so maybe i'll finally be able to ditch them in a few years

Yes!

Apple sells 4:3 screens in the iPad Pro.

And the iPad Pro isn't a laptop. It's a tablet running a locked-down, irreplaceable mobile device OS.

It demonstrates panel availability, which has been argued in the past as why no modern 4:3 thinkpads will be produced.

Apple can buy panels in any shape or size they want, that doesn't demonstrate general panel availability in any way. Do you think the notched display in iphone is an off-the shelf module?

Do you think the panel supplier wouldn't be happy to sell more of a panel Apple made very cheap for them to manufacture at scale?

You can bet that Apple makes those suppliers sign exclusivity contracts, less to keep the panels out of the hands of competitors like Lenovo and more to keep the panels out of the hands of counterfeiters/knockoff-artists.

And yet you can buy that exact LCD on ebay.

Can you buy 5000 of them on eBay?

For the 9.7” and 12.9 screens, you can buy 5000 4:3 LCD panels per week:

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60629586392/wholesale-9-7-Inch...

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60590281374/Original-Multi-Tou...

It demonstrates panel availability up to 12.9 inches, but not necessarily up to 14.

That's perfect for an X series, a real one, like the X[346]0 line which ended with the wide screen takeover.

Right, but the originator of the thread was talking specifically about 14" laptops.

A small screen increases the risk of a small keyboard.