While I agree with you, the scanner manufacturers, in an effort to keep costs down, have resorted to form factors already available, like the case the SDS100 is housed in. Further, the SDS100 is the first LI-Ion battery offering for a handheld scanner I am aware of and that was driven by the need for more power to run a software-defined radio (SDR). The amateur radio community has been using LI-Ion’s for years due to the power requirements when transmitting. I believe those amateur radio manufacturers followed the public safety/commercial market’s needs. Uniden could have built their SDS100 using the same form factor as the commercial gear but again, it would have raised the cost, and at the $700 approx list cost, the scanner market would have suffered, if you can believe the current marketing analysts. Uniden did make good on its intent to produce a portable that would give a reasonable amount of operating time with its upgraded larger battery for the SDS100 but they did it without increasing the size of the case, instead just the battery compartment.