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Since my new laptop does not have any fans or fan vents, I don't think there should be a problem to use it on the bed unlike other laptops whose vents block up causing overheating.
Can someone confirm my logic?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.0
I have an M1. I use it on the bed all the time. The Air has no ventilation access to the components in the spine like older macs. It's running a chip similar to what is in iPhones and iPads, and we use those on beds, but this has a better cooling solution via a heatsink pipe.
I know this will be longer than intended, sorry in advance, but for those who have the same question this should really help people get an understanding of the M1 Macbook Air...
Okay, so...
Outside in the Florida January weather, when it's 70F, the chip will run between 61-81F, according to iStat menu's thermal display at the top.
Basically, it runs close to ambient air temp when it's cool outside. Now, I never saw it run below 61F, so it's possible that iStat menus' thermal measuring either doesn't go below 61, the thermal sensor output doesn't go below 61, or ... that morning, on my school bus, while sitting at a school for 30 minutes before my middle school run began, when it was 45F outside and 52F inside the school bus, the CPU simply ... stayed at 61F from boot until running for 7-10 minutes.
The cooling is amazing, either way.
It runs between 90F and 105F when it's working to do something under standard load (internet surfing, downloading stuff, while watching a video, etc.), and ... well, I haven't seen it hotter than 110 while rendering some 4K footage of my band, and that was inside at 73F.
Okay, my mistake, I did see it get up to 135F briefly while under fairly heavy load.
I was updating 16 Apps at the same time, while putting music on my phone, while watching (either netflix or hulu, I can't recall which off the top of my head) on the side in a small window.
But it got back down to 110F after only a moment or so.
I'll let you know if it gets hot outside on a hot day, but I haven't had it outside in 90F+ weather yet, and I haven't seen anything like that sort of behavior yet under high load.
Keep in mind, Intel chips would shut down due to thermal safety demands at around 212F, roughly (That was always the last report I ever saw on my desktops in the past right before they shut down lol).
On ANOTHER upside, having no access to the battery bay and components means people can get a used M1 MBA in the future without worrying, "OMG will the shipper be sending me a PC full of roaches?" or some crap like that.
I know that isn't the first thing you should have to worry about when buying on eBay, but ... let's be real here, right?
Those darned things exist, and there doesn't seem to be access into the chassis via ventilation, nor through USB3 ports.
I looked with a flashlight. It's just an empty gap for the hinge, and there's no direct access (that I can see) into the chassis.
Let's face it, if bugs can't get in, they can't make a mess in there, right?
Anyway, to concisely answer your question it works great on the bed.
I'm using it on my bed right now, it's 73F in the house, and the CPU is at 81F while a bunch of advertisements run on the right side of the secondary Safari browser window, behind this one, and Chrome is running YouTube on the far left.
Currently, I have 85% battery, my uptime is 5 days 19 hours and 59 minutes. It's been in sleep mode for most of that time, just using it for 2 hours each day, but that also proves the M1 holds charge VERY WELL when sleeping.
Currently, I'm at 4 pips of backlighting (100% light is 16 pips), so it's at 25% brightness because my toddler is taking a nap next to my wife right now. Having said that, I also like that the keyboard is quiet enough that it's not waking them up or disturbing them.
It's a great computer and totally worth its price. :)
I used to use a 2014 Macbook Air and a Gen1 MS Surface laptop, which I bought around 2017-ish.
I remember thinking, "Man, the Microsoft Surface Laptop has great battery life because it can go into hibernation mode and not use power when sleeping."
The 2020 M1 Macbook Air blows the Surface laptop out of the water. Right now, iStat Menus claims I have 19:22 minutes of life remaining. Probably not accurate, but sure feels like it could be true.
After all, it doesn't use much power, nor does it generate much heat, when it's using 4 CPU cores to do simplistic tasks like typing and such.
And it's still at 81F while sitting on the bed, the entire time I took to compose this.
I'd say it's very safe, since my wife uses hers for 8 hours a day while sitting on the bed in her 'home office,' lmao. :)
I have an M1. I use it on the bed all the time. The Air has no ventilation access to the components in the spine like older macs. It's running a chip similar to what is in iPhones and iPads, and we use those on beds, but this has a better cooling solution via a heatsink pipe.
I know this will be longer than intended, sorry in advance, but for those who have the same question this should really help people get an understanding of the M1 Macbook Air...
Okay, so...
Outside in the Florida January weather, when it's 70F, the chip will run between 61-81F, according to iStat menu's thermal display at the top.
Basically, it runs close to ambient air temp when it's cool outside. Now, I never saw it run below 61F, so it's possible that iStat menus' thermal measuring either doesn't go below 61, the thermal sensor output doesn't go below 61, or ... that morning, on my school bus, while sitting at a school for 30 minutes before my middle school run began, when it was 45F outside and 52F inside the school bus, the CPU simply ... stayed at 61F from boot until running for 7-10 minutes.
The cooling is amazing, either way.
It runs between 90F and 105F when it's working to do something under standard load (internet surfing, downloading stuff, while watching a video, etc.), and ... well, I haven't seen it hotter than 110 while rendering some 4K footage of my band, and that was inside at 73F.
Okay, my mistake, I did see it get up to 135F briefly while under fairly heavy load.
I was updating 16 Apps at the same time, while putting music on my phone, while watching (either netflix or hulu, I can't recall which off the top of my head) on the side in a small window.
But it got back down to 110F after only a moment or so.
I'll let you know if it gets hot outside on a hot day, but I haven't had it outside in 90F+ weather yet, and I haven't seen anything like that sort of behavior yet under high load.
Keep in mind, Intel chips would shut down due to thermal safety demands at around 212F, roughly (That was always the last report I ever saw on my desktops in the past right before they shut down lol).
On ANOTHER upside, having no access to the battery bay and components means people can get a used M1 MBA in the future without worrying, "OMG will the shipper be sending me a PC full of roaches?" or some crap like that.
I know that isn't the first thing you should have to worry about when buying on eBay, but ... let's be real here, right?
Those darned things exist, and there doesn't seem to be access into the chassis via ventilation, nor through USB3 ports.
I looked with a flashlight. It's just an empty gap for the hinge, and there's no direct access (that I can see) into the chassis.
Let's face it, if bugs can't get in, they can't make a mess in there, right?
Anyway, to concisely answer your question it works great on the bed.
I'm using it on my bed right now, it's 73F in the house, and the CPU is at 81F while a bunch of advertisements run on the right side of the secondary Safari browser window, behind this one, and Chrome is running YouTube on the far left.
Currently, I have 85% battery, my uptime is 5 days 19 hours and 59 minutes. It's been in sleep mode for most of that time, just using it for 2 hours each day, but that also proves the M1 holds charge VERY WELL when sleeping.
Currently, I'm at 4 pips of backlighting (100% light is 16 pips), so it's at 25% brightness because my toddler is taking a nap next to my wife right now. Having said that, I also like that the keyboard is quiet enough that it's not waking them up or disturbing them.
It's a great computer and totally worth its price. :)
I used to use a 2014 Macbook Air and a Gen1 MS Surface laptop, which I bought around 2017-ish.
I remember thinking, "Man, the Microsoft Surface Laptop has great battery life because it can go into hibernation mode and not use power when sleeping."
The 2020 M1 Macbook Air blows the Surface laptop out of the water. Right now, iStat Menus claims I have 19:22 minutes of life remaining. Probably not accurate, but sure feels like it could be true.
After all, it doesn't use much power, nor does it generate much heat, when it's using 4 CPU cores to do simplistic tasks like typing and such.
And it's still at 81F while sitting on the bed, the entire time I took to compose this.
I'd say it's very safe, since my wife uses hers for 8 hours a day while sitting on the bed in her 'home office,' lmao. :)
The M1 runs extremely cool. No issue.
No problem is expected with heat, but I would be very worried about falling asleep and pushing mine over the edge. So far I have resisted the temptation.
Hahaha, that's an interesting concern. I'll take care of that too. Thanks!
Macbook air M1 safe to use on bed?
