0.05" thinner then what? I already corrected this once, it's 0.24" thinner then the normal MacBook Pro. Total height, including the bottom cover, and the LCD is 0.71". The old MBP is 0.95" If you were talking the difference between the full height of the laptop and an ethernet jack (0.65"), I'm calculating that to be 0.06", including the PCB mounting referencing this. I haven't seen a measurement on how thick the LCD is, but I'm guessing it's thicker then the 0.06" difference.

And a majority of the curved bottom is the bottom cover piece, and not the main unibody much like the current MacBook Pros. There is no usable space there for larger ports on the side. At best, they have some wiggle room there to increase battery capacity with the battery likely directly touching the bottom panel. The electronics would need a little gap for airflow.