Is the MBP ok to use on your lap?

Im not sure if it is because of where the vents are on the 2011 model. I dont know why they put it there cause when its on your lap, something will always get in the way. Im using it on my lap right now and its running super hot and the fan is running. If I touch the bottom near the screen and the plastic hinge its super hot.

My last laptop was great i could use it for hours and hours on my lap without it even getting remotely warm because the vent was on the left side.

 

Obviously its not ok with you. I never put my macbook pro on my lap for an extended period of time since it gets too hot.

 

The vets are the seam between the hinges that the LCD hangs on. If you look at the back with the screen open you will see them. Any material that kicks up and blocks the air impacts cooling. I use a lap board which makes it more comfortable and allows for better ventilation. The MBP also uses the skin to dissipate the heat too.

 

Since you're mostly a guy, then you probably shouldn't be putting something so close to your you know...

 

Maybe this whole MacBook Pro thing isn't working out for you. I have come across post after post of issues that you keep running into. It might be time to give up the ghost instead of trying to make something work that you obviously aren't liking.

As previously pointed out, the ventilation slots are located on the back of the model where the display hinge is located. So that is where hot air will blow out of when the fans kick on. That being said, the MBP is made of aluminum which isn't a good heat insulator. It easily transfers heat and cold as it is a good temperature conductor. There have been a countless number of times where I put my MBP on my lap only for it to be extremely cold. There have been other times when it has been uncomfortably warm. That is just the way aluminum notebooks are. You can take ANY brand (whether it is Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Sony) with an aluminum notebook, put it on your lap, and it will get toasty. Plastic is just a much better insulator when it comes to heat that you will be able to go for longer periods of time without noticing it.

 

Mac is for me man, Im just new to it. Ive been a windows user all my life. I love my mac, just need time to adapt. Im glad i bought it though after all this years and years on the fence.

I didnt know plastic minimizes heat a lot better than steel. I thought it was the other way around.

 

Well, yes and no. Thicker plastic is a better insulator than metal. The MBP's are also made of aluminum and not steel. Most metals can withstand higher temperatures than plastics without going through physical deformation. That is why you can have an iron skillet on the stove yet placing a plastic spatula on the same burner would cause it to melt. Being able to physically handle more heat has nothing to do with how the material transmits temperatures from one surface to another.

Well, it technically does but I don't want to go into a physics lesson right now. Just know that there is a big difference between being an insulator and being a conductor. Metal is often is good conductor of temperature (which is a form of energy) and a terrible insulator. Most plastics are the other way around in that they are good insulators and bad conductors (up to a certain extent).

 

What are you guys doing, seriously? 2011 MBP 13" and 2010 MBP 15" both on my lap, both no problems at all. Warm, I guess. Hot? No.

Are you just running HD video all the time? My VAIO TZ got hotter than this (but I guess that's why they had a recall for heat issues).

 

Just depends on what you doing but like I had minecraft playing and it was getting hot haha.

In my opinion no laptop is good laptops because most laptops have the exhausts on the bottom plate.

 

watching youtube heats it up beyond comfort...even if it doesn't burn me, i start sweating :/

 

Get a Safari extension called "YouTube5".

 

Hmm. Maybe it's because I have a speck case on that I don't notice it.

 

plastic on the outside insulates heat. That doesn't mean that machines made with plastic cool better, it just means you can't physically feel it as well. Sticking on a plastic case does the same thing. It can in fact be getting hotter internally, even if it feels cooler to the touch.

 

Is there an echo in here?

 

Honestly, I think it's fine on the lap. I bought the base model for my wife and I, and haven't noticed any heat issues.

Then again, it's the base model.

I will say this though. I watched the internal CPU temp skyrocket to 81c playing FRONTIERVILLE of all things. I was shocked at the CPU temp from a flash game, but even so, the bottom of the laptop wasn't hot at all. it was slightly warm.

 

depends what kinda pants you're wearing lol

 

I agree. Be careful with the "local warming". Have a look at this:

Yossi Vardi fights local warming | Video on TED.com

lol.

 

If you're just web browsing, it shouldn't be warm at all. If you're watching movies/playing games, then yes, it will get warmer. Use. GFXCardstatus to force integrated all the time, unless you need the dedicated graphics card. Otherwise, the dedicated runs almost all the time and makes the laptop too hot to be on your lap.

I've been using the MBP on my lap the last 4 hours without any discomfort.

 

The issue with web browsing, even with an integrated card running all the time, is that Flash can easily warm up a MBP especially if it is running under Mac OS X. CPU usage will be low but, for whatever reason, watching an HD Flash video really gets my MBP warm. There are even some instances when the cooling fans kick on when watching a 720p Flash video. The funny thing is that the cooling fans won't kick on even if I watch a 1080p Flash video under Windows.

Flash games (such as Farmville) also skyrocket temperatures for me under Mac OS X (though I was not playing Farmville and I would never play that game) yet they are fine with Windows. To me, it just looks like Flash is more efficient under Windows (which has been the case for a while even after Apple allowed developers to access the GPU for hardware acceleration).

 

I never did anything serious with notebook on my lap (no photoshop or gaming) just browsing / reading / watching a movie — and that worked fine. Its not too hot by any means.

 

In theory, no you're not supposed to use a laptop on your lap. Manufacturers always issue a disclaimer advising against it in their manuals, presumably for limiting legal liability. But some laptops are so horribly designed or cared for that they eventually cause discomfort or even burns to the user.

Just use your common sense in how you use it and you'll be fine.

 

i recommend investing in an iLap. it does absolutely nothing for cooling down the computer(the site is complete and utter BS - not that i didn't expect that), but it does keep your boys of the frying pan

 

Or - and this is just a million other people thinking the same thing - or you can use a book. *gasp*

Edit: I'm just playing. Seriously though, just use a book.

 

I got a lapdawg x4 for using my 17" in bed without having to sit up. It takes a bit to get used to, but I love it

Laptop Stand By LapDawg - A Revolutionary, Ergonomic Laptop Holder

 

i dunno, i try to treat my books with some dignity

...is it common for people to have books the size of 13" laptops in their house? cause i sure as hell don't.

 

In this day and age, I don't think it is common for people to have any type of books in their houses. I have a few books that my 13" MBPS could fit on but they are engineering design code "manuals." Those also happen to be the last books I ever purchased back in Fall 2009. I picked up my iPad a few months later and now I have a rather large book library on that. I wouldn't want to put my iPad between my lap and MBP though. That and I think a padded solution would be more comfortable if people really wanted to use their notebooks in their laps.

 

Your MBP is not getting hot because it's on your lap or because the vent is at the rear. You may want to provide more information.

To answer your question: I'm currently responding to this post, whilst watching SD Youtube video, with the MBP on my lap. The CPU temperature is 49C. The only time I've experienced any discomfort using the MBP on my lap so far is when I watched an HD video using iPlayer Desktop. All I did then was increase the fan RPM to 3500, which, when the video was playing, was inaudible, and got rid of the discomfort.

 

And this is a sad thing. I have several hundred books in my house, and a kindle with even more books on it. IMHO, reading a book forces people to slow down and enjoy life just a little more.

 

Coffee table books are pretty big, but I don't have any either. hehe

 

It's not like the bottom gets hot. As long as your skin isn't directly blocking the air vents, I don't see a problem. But then again, I have no idea what you guys are doing with your computers. Mine is on my lap all the time, and I don't need some pansy book to protect me from my computer.

 

I always use mine on my lap. It runs quite cool. My older macbook gets a lot hotter.

 

There must be something wrong with my mbp. It suffers a metamorphosis. In summer time I can't stand the heat on my laps after 15-20 minutes. In winter the heat is not an issue, bur far from running quite cool.

 

sounds more like a change in your sensitivity rather than in the machine.

 

Lol.
Or maybe the external temperature has something to do. It sounds weird that for some people their computers run quite cool and for other people the heat is an issue. After a couple of years with my mbp i'm really happy with it. But i wish the mpb could run cooler. It would be perfect.

 

Par for the course when dealing with a highly conductive metal.