What are the long slits on the sides of the 2023 MBP 16 for?

[Faize]

My Google-fu is failing me 🙁

 

[kitKAC]

Low frequency output from the speakers.

 

[subjonas]

Are you talking about this long slit on both sides? I believe they’re air intake.

 

[JPack]

Air intake. Without them, the fans would quickly make the chassis a vacuum.

 

[arw]

Illustration of the thermal design from the M1 Pro/Max press release (but M2 is highly similar):

 

[Faize]

Are you talking about this long slit on both sides? I believe they’re air intake.
View attachment 2303772

Yes, that slit.

Air intake. Without them, the fans would quickly make the chassis a vacuum.

Illustration of the thermal design from the M1 Pro/Max press release (but M2 is highly similar):

Interesting design. Most laptops just draw in air through the keyboard.

 

[throAU]

Yes, that slit.


Interesting design. Most laptops just draw in air through the keyboard.

Most laptops are stupid.

Drawing air in through the keyboard = drawing all the crap in through the keyboard that falls on top of it (getting it under the keys, etc.). Never mind the air flow restriction causing the fan to have to ramp harder.

 

[JPack]

Interesting design. Most laptops just draw in air through the keyboard.

No, most notebooks don't. In fact, I've never heard of such a design. Keyboards have a backplane, so air wouldn't pass through the keyboard assembly anyway.

Most notebooks have an intake vent directly above the fan.

 

[AeroHydra]

Yep, any high performance notebook will generally have air intakes on the bottom/sides. In fact macs are quite sparse when it comes to air intakes, most windows workstations have air intakes all across the bottom panel below the fans.