is true the mbp is getting reputation for being...

a lean, mean, grillin' machine! a.k.a. the george foreman grill? i was reading some reviews on amazon and some people mention how hot the macbooks get. a couple mentioned they needed to find a cooler quick before people started using their laptops to keep their coffee warm at cafes, or another said he could fry bacon on his keyboard. i thought it was pretty funny.

 

it would be a stretch to even call it warm right now. it can get warm under heavy usage and hot at a few points. nothing crazy though.

the hottest point is right above the keyboard by the escape key.

 

I've got the 15" base model with AntiGlare display and it's one of the coolest laptops I've ever used.

 

The 2011 model can definitely get hotter than the 2010 models.

The 13" went from a Core 2 Duo (dual core) to a dual core i5/i7
The 15" and 17" went from a dual core i5/i7 to a quad core i7

So they will run hotter under load, but under casual use (web surfing, movies, etc) they are pretty cool.

Also the design of the MBP chooses clean looks over cooling performance. There aren't air inlets on the sides and obvious exhaust holes, instead they used the gab between the LCD hinge and body to exhaust hot air. I think MBP's have always ran a little bit hotter then your average laptop.

 

Question about that exhaust ability. If you are using an external screen and the laptop is closed down like I've seen in many cases, where is the hot air during intense usage escaping in that case?

 

I just set up a 13" MBP for a user here and it got a bit toasty when I had Fusion running (which I expected). Other than that, I didnt notice that it got considerably warm

 

sadly a lot goes up and goes between the keyboard and screen and out that way...

 

they do run hot but its important to realize its within spec. as far as i know after the osx update people do not have freeze or shutdown issues any more.

I cant speak from personal experience its just what ive read. i bought the old 2010 model. I got it real cheap brand new because it was "old model". Its 2.66 ghz and 320m graphics. i love it to death its cool and quiet and all its missing is a ssd drive. No regrets on not getting a sandy bridge. I think i will pass and wait for the next model.

 

That seems to be the place alot are complaining about. Upper left of keyboard. I didn't check the dates of some of the extreme complaints. I did notice some other complaints of not being able to use the mbp under heavy load because of fear of prematurely frying their laptop. Spec or not that's not good for the premium apple users pay. I haven't my sandy bridge laptop yet but I'm not too worried yet. Cpu's seem to cool pretty under short heavy loads. I don't know about putting the petal to the metal. I only do that when stressing my laptop when I change thermal paste.

 

I'm sure there's still a pic of someone frying an egg on the MBP palm rest from a few years back floating around out there. Fake of course, but still hilarious.

 

the only apple laptop I have had "fry" had a defective gpu, the classic 8600m gt. i dont think premature failure is a common problem for these machines.

 

MBP's definitely run hot. People who say otherwise are either deluding themselves, or not running anything intensive, or simply not paying attention (if you don't run it on your lap, there's a good chance you wont notice).

I've had a lot of laptops, and keep in mind I love my new MBP, dearly. But I would say it's greatest weakness is it's thermal design. There's no real way for it to exhaust the heat even when it kicks up the fans, so that even my little 13 inch with no dedicated GPU can get scalding along the bottom back when doing something intensive.

Kinda bothered me the other day when it just happened to be a hotter day and I couldn't keep it on my lap under pretty modest use. Been spoiled to cooler weather lately.

Coming off an Asus g73 that had possibly the best thermal design I've ever seen, it is monstrously apparent. That said, before any fanboys reply, I'm using the MBP now, so obviously all the benefits outweigh this negative.

But ya, it is not due to having "powerful components" there are plenty of other laptops that get along flawlessly with much stronger components. It is everything to do with apples poor design with regard to thermals. And I would gladly take even another half inch of thickness if it meant they structured the internals for proper cooling.

 

no real way... besides the opening for exhaust...

Make sure you don't put the laptop on a surface that absorbs and keeps heat, like a bed or a pillow... and make sure the back exhaust vents are not blocked.

 

I have an anti-glare 2010 15" i5. It gets warm (what notebook doesn't?), but the George Foreman grill?? LMAO. No way.

 

my 2010 17in macbook i5 has never gone above 67C even under heavy load and video.

It idles in the high 30's and average browsing put it right around 43C

maybe the i7 15in are creating a ton of heat, but i'm actually really impressed with the heat and the weight of my 2010 17in

 

One thing I do like about the 2011 (and unibody in general), is that even after playing crysis for ~3 hrs in windows and the fans mimicking a suburban home heater, after going back to OS X and light web surfing, the laptop cools down rapidly. Within 15-20 mins, after logging back into OS X, I am able to put it back on my lap with no discomfort.

Obviously, the time playing and cooling off is done on a flat surface with nothing blocking the vents in any way.

 

If you look at the laptop when closed or open there is always an exhaust gap between the hinge and the bottom panel of the case. So the exhaust can still escape whether the laptop is open or not.

 

some, but it gets more blocked when closed at the bottom, while opening more at the top, by the screen. Its still exhausts fine, but when running it really hard for a long time then opening the screen, they keyboard and screen will feel way warmer than normal, so people automatically think it was overheating.