Measurement madness

I recently finished writing my review of the Panasonic Toughbook Executive CF-T8.

While running through the notebook specifications I, of course, noted the weight. 1385g. That’s pretty precise.

I’m used to seeing width, height and depth measurements reported to the tenth of a millimetre when it comes to mobile phones. Though who really cares whether a mobile phone is 49.6mm wide or 49.7mm wide I have no idea.

Well, OK, I’ll revise that statement. The marketing people care.

They care when they want to boast that they have the shortest, thinnest, or whatever phone currently on the market.

But such claims can be short-lived. Today’s thinnest handset might not be tomorrow’s. Measurements like that are a target to be jumped at and can be bettered in a nanosecond. Or maybe a picosecond.

Still, I do get the point.

But I’m completely flummoxed as to why anyone would care that a notebook weighs 1385g. That’s 1.385Kg. Is Panasonic making the point that it can engineer every notebook so precisely that they all weigh exactly 1385g?

Surely simply rounding up to 1.4Kg is enough.

Anybody care to enlighten me?