Weird that they act like the 1.7B model is too big for a laptop, in contrast to a...4060 with the same amount of memory as that laptop. A 1.7B model is well within range of what you can run on a MacBook Air.
I don't think a 170M model is even useful for the same class of applications. Could be good for real-time applications though.
Looking forward to testing these, if they are ever made publicly available.