2015 rMBP lateral down-firing cooling vents

[0004838]

Just noticed these while browsing the latest 15'' MBPs in an Apple Store. Apparently the fans no longer blow from the hinge into the screen, as on my 2011 model. According to the employee I spoke to this was causing damage to screens. He also informed me that the latest MBPs are fanless, which sounds implausible. Can someone confirm?

Also, how is the new venting design working out for users putting these models under heavy loads (eg. that infernally-taxing pastime called, "watching a Flash Player/Silverlight-based video")? Do you have to be more aware of the surface you rest your MBP on?

 

[NT1440]

The fans being damaged? Nonsense.

As for fanless, only the the Macbook is fanless.

The machines are now quieter then they've ever been.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Well of course they aren't fanless a 45W quadcore CPU needs some fairly serious cooling. (The retina macbook is fanless that's it).

They do now have some vents that push out of the sides although I've never seen any evidence that it was damaging screens before.

My 13 inch is cooler and quieter by a long way than previous MBP's I've owned.

If flash is troubling use Click to flash and HTML conversion plug ins to avoid it, as well as adblock to control the sheer amount of flash some webpages try to run all at the same time.

 

[FuNGi]

The rMBP's draw air in from the sides and blow it out the back or up the screen, depending on screen angle and if its on a desk. The old MBP's drew in and blew out the same vented area = bad design. Your Apple employee didn't know what they were talking about.

 

[0004838]

The rMBP's draw air in from the sides and blow it out the back or up the screen, depending on screen angle and if its on a desk. The old MBP's drew in and blew out the same vented area = bad design. Your Apple employee didn't know what they were talking about.

Yeah, I asked a different member of staff today. They themselves had no clue, but a quick headset chat with a member of the Genius team confirmed your analysis.

So, I'm assuming this improves efficiency of cooling by not drawing in recently-expelled warm air, and reduces noise by preventing the turbulence caused by ingress and egress of air in close proximity. Drawback is (and this is where I disagree that the hinge-only method is unequivocally a "bad design"): you have to take more care not to block the ingress vents with your work surface.

 

[laurihoefs]

It's actually surprisingly hard to accidentally block the air vents. They are slightly angled, a bit higher than the bottom plate, and much wider than they absolutely need to be.

Unless you run really high workloads for long periods of time, even partially blocked vents will provide sufficient air.

 

[0004838]

It's actually surprisingly hard to accidentally block the air vents. They are slightly angled, a bit higher than the bottom plate, and much wider than they absolutely need to be.

Unless you run really high workloads for long periods of time, even partially blocked vents will provide sufficient air.

This sounds like a worthwhile design change then. I'm assuming these ports became possible as a result of Apple's port cull.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. I'm looking forward more and more to pulling the trigger on a 2016 15'' rMBP in Q1 '16 *fingers crossed*

 

[FuNGi]

Yeah. The only downside to having vents on the lower sides is you can no longer set your MBP pro down onto a table covered in baking flour.

 

[0004838]

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