That shot is misleading because the air slopes down so much. the max thickness of each device is likely pretty similar, but the Air has a much slimmer average thickness.
The Air tapers across the width of the body to make the edges significantly narrower than the laptop is at its thickest point. Try looking at them both fully edge-on so you can see the Air's full profile.
The Verge says the touchscreen isn't really smooth though.
>And then there's the touchscreen. Google repeatedly told us how smooth and fluid it is to swipe through webpages on the touchscreen on the Pixel, and how it would enable developers to target a broader ecosystem for their apps by allowing their tablet and smartphone creations to have the same experience on the web. If only it were true: the touchscreen response is far from fluid, if Google's on-stage demos and our own hands-on impressions are any indication.
What use is the touchscreen apart from scrolling or tapping on links in the browser?
The Verge calls it a hair thicker than the Air, am I the only one that feels that it's a lot thicker? Comparison photo: http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7732773/theverge...