Comment by overfeed

> Macbooks have been, for 15+ years now, the only laptops that I can trust to actually sleep and conserve battery when I close the lid and slip into a backpack for a few-hr flight.

Even the cheapest of Chromebooks sleep and resume reliably. I suspect the reason is not purely R&D, but limiting the number of supported devices/chipsets and testing the supported configuration thoroughly. Chromebook OEMs can only manufacturer specific hardware combinations blessed by Google, and in exchange Google updates the drivers during the support period.