I get where you're going. A laptop is more expensive the than equivalent power desktop.
I don't think any consoles have ever gotten so small that this has entered the equation in any significant way however. Perhaps the Xbox 360 could have shipped with a larger hard drive at launch if they'd used a 3.5" drive instead of 2.5". But the size of the launch 360 wasn't because it was cheaper to let it be bigger, it was because the technology they used just wasn't possible to put in a smaller package at the time.
PC to laptop minituarization is completely different from what you have to deal with in consoles. In PCs you have to use a very specific type of CPU (x86-64) if you want to compete. These processors were never originally designed to be super power efficient to begin with, and since they have to be very generalized processors instead of specialized, they often have to be super high clocked to handle all the tasks people do on them.
Now essentially, what you put in a desktop is functionally the same hardware as a laptop. There are a few exceptions (especially on the super low end)... but if you want a high end laptop, you essentially have to shove desktop parts into it. Now to make sure those desktop parts don't overheat the small case they have to be individually tested to make sure they meet lower voltage requirements and you have to have stronger coolers because you can't as easily move air in them. That means (especially on the high end) parts have to be individually checked and binned to be able to handle high speeds at low voltages and thus a much higher price.
Still, the CPUs are more or less identical. Same fabrication, same assemblies, same features. In consoles you aren't trying to shove a very generalized PC processor into a tiny console, instead you're shoving very specialized hardware... This allows you to get away with "weaker" parts that are generally cheaper/smaller and still get the same or better results than something with much greater paper specs.
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