I love thermal imaging more than a Predator and almost as much as I love the new retina display MacBook Pro. So I made this little GIF animation with thermal images from Japanese blog IT Media, showing how hot Apple’s coolest computer gets under maximum stress.
The verdict: it doesn’t get too hot at all. The combination of its ventilation design and the absence of a hard drive seems to work quite fine.
In sleep mode, it doesn’t produce any distinguishable heat, napping at just 30.3C. Playing a QuickTime movie for 15 minutes only took it to 35.1C.
The machine only got significantly hot when pushed to the limit using Cinebench and other hardcore apps. Then it reached its maximum temperature: 48.2C. That’s when you need to get your computer off your lap or risk some toasted legs. [IT Media in Japanese via Cult of Mac]