One of the things that kept me away from MacBooks was an experience I had a few years ago.
I don’t buy notebook computers by mail for one big reason: heat. Heat dissipation is one of the biggest engineering challenges in computers, made doubly so in the confined space of a notebook computer case. So I want to test a notebook’s heat dissipation before I buy it. I want to feel the underside, and I want to rest my hands on the keyboard and feel if the wristrests are too hot.
A few years ago, we had a work a benefits fair, where one booth was showcasing Mac products. (We got a discount on Mac purchases as employees.) I picked up the demo MacBook and felt the underside of the case–and jerked my fingers away, my fingertips almost getting burned by the high temperature.
So befoer I made the commitment to but this MacBook Pro, I tried doing a lot of research. I read review after review. And every time I was in a computer store that sold MacBook Pros, I’d feel the underide, looking especially for ones that had been running for awhile or doing some task. Reviews suggested that Apple had improved on its heat dissipation in newer models, and none that I encountered ever got all that hot.
But the reality turned out to be not quite the pre-purchase experience.
I’ve found that CPU-intensive activities really makes the bottom of the case hot. Even ripping CDs, which you’d not think is all that intensive (in iTunes no less) does the trick. But tonight took the cake.
All I’ve been doing is some occasional web surfing, in-between watching TV (and leaving the MacBook Pro simply sitting. At one point, afger being away for 10-15 minites, I came back, only to find it quite warm.
I have no explanation. Nothing at all has been straining the CPU nor has there been anything driving disk activity. But it’s definitely too hot to sit on a lap. There’s even a modest amount of heat coming up through the left side of the keyboard.
I can’t tell if this is normal, but the first impressions are that maybe Apple engineers didn’t do as good at engineering good heat dissipation as originally believed.
