MacBook - Safe to use on your Lap?

My guess would be a general "no" to the question of people using it on their laps and tolerating "tremendous heat burns". But some have a higher pain tolerance than others (or, in this case, sensitivity to minor heat, meaning - the type of heat that will not produce first, second or third degree burns). So who knows?

A Suggestion: for those who have a problem with minor heat, get a nice-sized book (or otherwise flat surface) that the Macbook will easily fit on and commence working.

I say no. 100% no.

Maybe it's just mine, but it gets SO hot that it does burn.
Got a red mark on my leg to prove it :P

(For those who say I should have removed it earlier), I wanted to see how long I could keep it on before uncomfortable became unbareable.

One thing you can try is to set your Energy Saver settings to Better Energy Savings. This should cycle your processor speed to generally lower speeds which does reduce heat. Hopefully by enough for you to use in your lap.

Please remember that for those of us in the Nothern Hemisphere it is getting to summer which makes the heat from our laptops seem worse. What's really nice and toasty in winter becomes rather painful in summer.

Khalifa do you have a picture of the red mark on your leg? This should be documented on http://www.appledefects.com

Speaking of that site, they have an article today relating to this topic:

http://www.appledefects.com/?p=15

Worth checking out!

I received an interesting comment from Apple's tech
support by two seperate reps regarding the incredible
heat issues of my MacBook, they said "The MacBook is
a notebook and you aren't supposed to use it on your
lap, that is why it's called a notebook not a
laptop."

This is Apples response to try to convince customers that some how notebooks were never intended to be used in a lap which is so much bull.

The MacBook heat issue is a design flaw pure and simple. My iBook G4 sits on my lap as I type this and it is perfectly fine. I tried the MacBook for two hours and I could not believe how hot it was in my lap.

I felt like Apple was trying to burn me or teach me not to use a computer. I measured 110F while idle and 113F while barely doing anything under the MacBook. If my desktop was that hot on my table or desk I would take it back too.

Apple moved to Intel as the G5 was too hot for notebooks. As far as I am concerned the Intel is to hot too. People that use a notebook in their lap will find the MacBook is a poor choice. I did. It also appears that Apple has no plans to fix the heat issue based on their customer service response so far.

Michael

I'm responding to you from outside while sitting in a reclining lawn chair. My MacBook is on my legs and I have shorts on. The outside temperature is 83ºf which is warmer than the inside of my house. I've been sitting out here for about an hour. I can feel the warmth on my left leg. Certainly warm but no where near enough that it's uncomfortable much less painful.

Ive noticed it gets hotter on my sheets in my bed than it does on my lap. I can use it comfortably in my lap when im laying in bed. I only notice it getting uncomfortably hot when I have it plugged in and I am pushing the processor running XP in parallels while using adobe/flash. Other than that, just make sure the bottom of the computer has some ventilation and mine stays cool enough to be in your lap.

Other than that, just make sure the bottom of the computer has some ventilation and mine stays cool enough to be in your lap.

While us males might enjoy it I think the required knee/leg position can be quite un-lady-like. 😉

The MacBook heat issue is a design flaw pure and
simple. My iBook G4 sits on my lap as I type this and
it is perfectly fine.

Stay with your iBook G4, then - no need to get a MacBook if you're happy with the iBook and its performance.

It's unlikely, though, that future notebooks will run any cooler. Most people today just want a thin and light laptop, but performance similar to their desktop machine. With todays technology this is possible, but the tradeoffs are heat and noise.

My wife and I both use our MacBooks on our laps. It is warm, but not uncomfortable at all. It is quite a bit cooler than the HP DV8000 laptop that we own. Maybe this temperature characteristic is different among MacBooks or even among people, but I can say that ours are just fine for working with while sitting on the couch. 🙂

Ive used mine on my lap and after a while (about 1-2 hours it gets unconfortable. However, I have solved this by just using a normal dinner tray. Go and get a cheap dinner tray from somewhere (make sure the macbook fits on it first) and then volia, its fine.

I'm still waiting for my MB to arrive, but had 3 weeks experience with 3 MBPs I returned for whining reasons (that's why I switched to MB ).
MBP are supposed to run even hotter then MB (they have a GPU warming too), but, when using it on my lap, and having care to keep it on open legs, so to allow the heat to cool down from most of the bottom, it never felt so hot to be unsafe.
Not always confortable but far from dangerous.
Bye.

Guess what? No Apple portable has ever been advertised by Apple as a "laptop." The reason they have those little feet on the bottom is to elevate the computer off a FLAT surface to allow for proper ventilation.

I use my G3 iBook on my lap regularly with no problem. However, when I started using the iBook G4 the same way, I found that its fan was coming on about 10 times more frequently than the G3's ever did. My son gave me a Targus laptop desk for Mother's Day, and I use it all the time with my iBook G4. (A cheap acrylic cutting board would do nearly as well.)

I am getting one of these (has not arrived yet)

http://wrappers.typepad.com/

QUOTE " Made from high quality, heat resistant rubber, the sleeve insulates against temperatures up to 250 degrees centigrade. Available now, priced £17.99"

This might be of interest ......

I dont think guys should be using it on their lap whether it is a regardless of whether it burns or just is uncomfortably warm because they still generate heat. I remember hearing a while back that it can cause infertillity, and even though my work laptop is cooler than my macbook I still would not use either of them on my lap.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6677040/