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Suggest me a decent laptop that doesn't overheat like my MBP13 2020

T

Tony01

macrumors member
Original poster
May 25, 2019
38
13
I've just bought my first MBP13 and I'm about to return it because it becomes really hot on the top and bottom and I can barely keep it on my legs. If I try to push any sustained workload it will instantly it 100C and throttle down.

Yesterday I decided to play a game (I play league of legends sometimes) with low graphic and resolution and this thing throttled down to 1Ghz.

Is there any other Windows laptop, portable and nice as this one, that will not overheat like crazy? I need a 13-14 inch laptop

Thanks in advance
 
Ever heard of Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro? It is a beast.

But depending on your budget (and my budget), I can only go up to Asus ROG.
 
It all depends on what you do with your laptop. Every laptop will get hot when pushed.

X1 Carbon stays relatively cool to the touch, it won't throttle like crazy, but if pushed for sustained amount of time, it will get hot.

Surface Book 13,5 comes to mind. Maybe try with that one, since it comes with dgpu and is really powerful for its size.
 
c0ppo said:
It all depends on what you do with your laptop. Every laptop will get hot when pushed.

X1 Carbon stays relatively cool to the touch, it won't throttle like crazy, but if pushed for sustained amount of time, it will get hot.

Surface Book 13,5 comes to mind. Maybe try with that one, since it comes with dgpu and is really powerful for its size.
Click to expand...
The Surface Book is crazy expensive, more than my current MBP.
I'll check some reviews of the X1 carbon

Currenlty while browsing PDF with acrobat reader CPU temps go up to 70C which doesn't sound normal for me :(
 
Tony01 said:
The Surface Book is crazy expensive, more than my current MBP.
I'll check some reviews of the X1 carbon

Currenlty while browsing PDF with acrobat reader CPU temps go up to 70C which doesn't sound normal for me :(
Click to expand...

It's really expensive, that is true.
But I've used SB2 15" for almost 2 weeks. It was dead silent most of the time. CPU and GPU are in different sections, so that really helps with cooling.

If you can purchase one with those 14/30 day returns, buy one. Use it. If you don't like it, return it.
X1C is a great device, but SB will be more silent and powerful.

If you go with X1C, I would stick with FHD screen. 4K is a complete overkill, and it will be taxing to your system and battery.
 
All laptops with Intel CPUs get hot, 45w CPUs are especially bad.

I use a Lenovo P53 now and can compare it to the late 2019 15" MBP I had before.


  • The MacBook hit 100° almost immediately if you did something with it. Thats how Apple configures these things. It also got insanely hot to the touch. Way too hot for my liking
  • The P53 works very different
    • the fans spin up (depending on the performance setting) way earlier
    • around 80° seems to be what Lenovo decided to be a limit for CPU temperature
    • the top of the P53 gets warm, but that's it. Not hot. The bottom is warmer, but still nowhere near as hot as the Mac
I do prefer the fan noise of the MacBook though, the Thinkpad has a higher pitch which I don't like.


btw: I love all these ports on the Thinkpads. Yesterday I just plugged an ethernet cable into it. Without dongles. hallelujah
 
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If heat is a concern, then I would suggest going for a gaming laptop or workstation laptop. Check Dell Precision series or HP Z-book series.
 
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grmlin said:
All laptops with Intel CPUs get hot, 45w CPUs are especially bad.

I use a Lenovo P53 now and can compare it to the late 2019 15" MBP I had before.


  • The MacBook hit 100° almost immediately if you did something with it. Thats how Apple configures these things. It also got insanely hot to the touch. Way too hot for my liking
  • The P53 works very different
    • the fans spin up (depending on the performance setting) way earlier
    • around 80° seems to be what Lenovo decided to be a limit for CPU temperature
    • the top of the P53 gets warm, but that's it. Not hot. The bottom is warmer, but still nowhere near as hot as the Mac
I do prefer the fan noise of the MacBook though, the Thinkpad has a higher pitch which I don't like.


btw: I love all these ports on the Thinkpads. Yesterday I just plugged an ethernet cable into it. Without dongles. hallelujah
Click to expand...
I'm thinking about getting a T14 or waiting for ARM macs. If cooled properly, a mb air will be fine for me :)
 
I would look for the new Ryzen machines. They should run cooler if properly built and have better performance than most Intel based laptops.
 
This one is a great buy:

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM - TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 (Archived) - TUXEDO Computers

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM
www.tuxedocomputers.com www.tuxedocomputers.com

Cheap, powerful, well built. We have on in our office. It's amazing what you can purchase these days for not so much money. It's really light and has great thermals. Way more powerful than any 13" MBP.
 
Too bad it took AMD so long to get these machine out into the wild. This one has an estimated delivery date of mid October :(
 
grmlin said:
Too bad it took AMD so long to get these machine out into the wild. This one has an estimated delivery date of mid October :(
Click to expand...

It's a brand new device from a small OEM, and with all that, they are selling them like crazy.
We got ours in 4 days, and for the next batch we have to wait 3-4 weeks.

I will use one for a week at least. I'm really curious how it does with Ubuntu, especially because it comes with it by default.
But I already know I won't be using one, since it doesn't come with TB3, and I tend to use thunderbolt a lot.

But that CPU+GPU combo is a heaven for Linux users...
 
The lack of TB 3 is the biggest downside for me, too. But this should be fixed with USB 4, right? I hope old TB3 devices will keep working with these...
 
grmlin said:
The lack of TB 3 is the biggest downside for me, too. But this should be fixed with USB 4, right? I hope old TB3 devices will keep working with these...
Click to expand...

USB4 will fix those issues for sure. And yes, USB 4 will work with TB3.
That's the main reason I won't be changing my laptop any time soon. My ideal laptop would be X1E, but with 16:10 screen, AMD Ryzen and USB4.

Also, I'm using X1E 2nd gen at the moment, so it's not like I'm anxious to change it any time soon. I would really like to stick with Lenovo. No issues at all, probably the best laptop I have ever owned.
 
That's good to know, thanks! My P53 will be with me for a while now, beside the absolutely atrocious battery life, I'm very happy with it.
 
c0ppo said:
This one is a great buy:

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM - TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 (Archived) - TUXEDO Computers

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM
www.tuxedocomputers.com www.tuxedocomputers.com

Cheap, powerful, well built. We have on in our office. It's amazing what you can purchase these days for not so much money. It's really light and has great thermals. Way more powerful than any 13" MBP.
Click to expand...
Looks to be a nice cheap computer but for me, the company not being US based is a show stopper - just from a support perspective.
 
c0ppo said:
This one is a great buy:

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM - TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 (Archived) - TUXEDO Computers

TUXEDO Pulse 15 - Gen1 - 15,6 inch non-glare Full-HD IPS + 100 % sRGB + AMD Ryzen 7 4800H + AMD Radeon Vega 7 Graphics + M.2 NVMe SSD + max. 64GB RAM
www.tuxedocomputers.com www.tuxedocomputers.com

Cheap, powerful, well built. We have on in our office. It's amazing what you can purchase these days for not so much money. It's really light and has great thermals. Way more powerful than any 13" MBP.
Click to expand...

Hi, reviving an old thread here, hope that's ok.

I found out about this company and laptop very recently when looking for a replacement for my 15 inch MBP. I'm determined to not let Apple fleece me for their laptops any more (the one I'd consider would cost me over 4000 Euros all in.... not going to happen).
The Pulse 15 seems like the most interesting candidate I found. German company is also a plus in my case since I am local.

Ideally I'd like to know what the keyboard feels like compared to the MBP chiclet style of old (pre 2016 butterfly model). Also how smooth does the trackpad work under Linux and can you use multi touch well on it without hiccups?

Is the case stable and does not creak? And how much of a fingerprint magnet can I expect the top cover to be?


I have some recent experience with a low end HP laptop running Ubuntu hence those questions. :D The OS seemed to work really well on it despite the machine being mainly Windows-targeted though. Which was a very positive surprise.
 
I've had an X1 Carbon 7th gen for two years, and I'm about to sell it. I would never recommend one - runs so hot you could fry an egg off it, and has utterly diabolical battery life.
 
th0masp said:
Hi, reviving an old thread here, hope that's ok.

I found out about this company and laptop very recently when looking for a replacement for my 15 inch MBP. I'm determined to not let Apple fleece me for their laptops any more (the one I'd consider would cost me over 4000 Euros all in.... not going to happen).
The Pulse 15 seems like the most interesting candidate I found. German company is also a plus in my case since I am local.

Ideally I'd like to know what the keyboard feels like compared to the MBP chiclet style of old (pre 2016 butterfly model). Also how smooth does the trackpad work under Linux and can you use multi touch well on it without hiccups?

Is the case stable and does not creak? And how much of a fingerprint magnet can I expect the top cover to be?


I have some recent experience with a low end HP laptop running Ubuntu hence those questions. :D The OS seemed to work really well on it despite the machine being mainly Windows-targeted though. Which was a very positive surprise.
Click to expand...

Keyboard is great. To me even better than MBP 2015 for example.
Trackpad on default is really bad. No gestures at all. Except 2 finger scroll.

But that is an easy fix. Not even one linux distro comes with trackpad gestures preinstalled. But there is an easy fix for that with 3rd party (open source) software.

Elementary OS 6.0 will come with preinstalled gestures, and those work great! They even have smooth animations like MacOS. Elementary 6.0 should come out soon, so you can easily install those same gestures on any other distro so there won't be any need to 'make your own'.
 
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c0ppo said:
Keyboard is great. To me even better than MBP 2015 for example.
Trackpad on default is really bad. No gestures at all. Except 2 finger scroll.

But that is an easy fix. Not even one linux distro comes with trackpad gestures preinstalled. But there is an easy fix for that with 3rd party (open source) software.

Elementary OS 6.0 will come with preinstalled gestures, and those work great! They even have smooth animations like MacOS. Elementary 6.0 should come out soon, so you can easily install those same gestures on any other distro so there won't be any need to 'make your own'.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, sounds great so far!

Re: trackpad - apart from gestures what does it feel like under the finger? Is it smooth like an MBP's? I've tried too many that seemed to have a high resistance to the finger tip and did not pick up taps for clicking so clearly. For example the HP one I mentioned earlier did seem to have trouble differentiating between single and double taps for LMB/RMB clicks.
Unless that was just the driver - failed to investigate which one was in use.
 
Another question: what kind of video output resolutions does the Ryzen 7 4800 iGPU manage when connected to external screens? I'm using ultra wide monitors at 3840 x 1600 on my computers. Am I correct in assuming that a single external display like that hooked up is no problem for the chip (lower than 4K res)?
 
th0masp said:
Thanks for the feedback, sounds great so far!

Re: trackpad - apart from gestures what does it feel like under the finger? Is it smooth like an MBP's? I've tried too many that seemed to have a high resistance to the finger tip and did not pick up taps for clicking so clearly. For example the HP one I mentioned earlier did seem to have trouble differentiating between single and double taps for LMB/RMB clicks.
Unless that was just the driver - failed to investigate which one was in use.
Click to expand...

I really can't remember that one. I don't own that laptop, just used it for a few hours.
But I'm willing to check it out for you when I get back to my town. I believe we still have 2-3 of those in office.

th0masp said:
Another question: what kind of video output resolutions does the Ryzen 7 4800 iGPU manage when connected to external screens? I'm using ultra wide monitors at 3840 x 1600 on my computers. Am I correct in assuming that a single external display like that hooked up is no problem for the chip (lower than 4K res)?
Click to expand...

Even intel iGPU can handle that without problems. AMD iGPU is more powerful, so I don't see why ultrawide would be an issue.
 
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