Oh, please don't let anyone at Apple hear you complain about "thicker". I'm still not back to trusting them after years of downgrades pretending to be upgrades: "We've made the thinnest, best-looking Mac ever while removing less functionality than we've removed in most previous upgrades!"
My sentiments exactly. Go buy an iPad if you want thin light and all day battery life. I want what Apple is delivering today, real power with real portability, even if it weighs a bit more and happens to have some love handles.
I went from an M1 Air to an M1 Pro 14” and agree with you. The Air weight is a bit magical. Very chuckable, makes you want to reach for it whenever you want to get something done quickly or perch it on the arm of the couch.
By contrast the M1 Pro 14” just tips over into unwieldy. So much so that I regret not just going the whole hog and getting the 16”, since at this weight I prefer to have it sitting on a proper table and could’ve used the extra screen real estate.
I had intended to sell the Air but ended up keeping both, mainly for this very reason. The Pro rarely leaves its dock.
Agreed - it's great that the battery life on the pro is so good now, but that extra weight is, to me, the difference between noticeable and not noticeable.
I have a 14" M1 Pro from work and a personal M2 Air and it's always surprising how much heavier the M1 Pro feels from my Air.