The more we learn about Apple’s new MacBook Pro, the more we see how different the design is. There’s the display, which has some of the best specs we’ve ever seen; the speakers, which generate more bass when the lid is closed; and the hinge, which is more stable to accommodate taps and pinches. And now we’ve gotten a look at the cooling, which might be the most beautiful of all.
In its announcement of the MacBook Pro, Apple called out its “completely redesigned thermal architecture,” which “enables the same incredible sustained performance of M5 Pro and M5 Max, even in a lighter design, while redirecting warm air away from the display.” That sounds like a lot of fancy words for a whole lot of nothing, but it turns out it’s actually completely reimagined.
A YouTube video by Geekerwan compared the mini-LED MacBook Pro with the new PROLED XDR model using a fog machine. With each MacBook’s fans running, you can clearly see how the internal design disperses the heat: In the old model, heat goes both out and up through the display, while the PROLED pushes the heat toward the back of the device through the hinge.
Geekerwan /YouTube
Pushing the heat out the back is no easy task and required a thorough redesign of the hinge and ventilation system. Not only does the new MacBook Pro do a better job of keeping heat away from the keyboard and display, as Geekerwan explains, but the benefit isn’t simply better cooling capacity when working on the PROLED screen. It also helps disperse heat better when the lid is closed and hooked up to an external monitor. To drive the point home, he tested both models closed and found a massive drop in performance on the older model as a result of thermal throttling.
Geekerwan also found that the fans spun faster and were quieter on the PROLED model. It’s unclear whether that’s due to new hardware or software tweaks, but iFixit’s teardown found the same fan placement under the logic board and nothing particularly noteworthy about the fans themselves.
Check out our 5-star review of the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display.
