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philistineyesterday at 12:55 AM4 repliesview on HN

The ability to run without a fan is not a problem; it's a feature. Would you want a fan in your phone?


Replies

SturgeonsLawyesterday at 1:10 AM

It's fine, but it's a design decision with tradeoffs, and gamers are prepared to make different tradeoffs (bigger and noisier are ok if they deliver a big enough performance jump).

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chocochunksyesterday at 1:43 AM

It's also a con. You get worse sustained performance. You also get a hotter device. There's a reason the base model M series MBPs consistently bench higher than the exact same chip MBAs in things like Cinebench. The fan.

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dangusyesterday at 1:09 PM

What about the fan in the Nintendo Switch? Do Nintendo Switch owners hear the fan or consider it a problem that stops them from making a purchase?

I don’t know why people parrot this talking point about a lack of fan being a positive feature. It’s like a shared propaganda talking point that Mac enthusiasts all agree upon universally. If Apple added fans to the Air and Neo you’d all change your tune since Dear Leader changed their mind, just like when Apple enthusiasts stopped blindly hating Intel suddenly during the architecture transition. You’d all say stuff like “Apple gave us boosted performance and you can’t even hear the fans! All those PC laptops that I’ve never cross shopped since 2001 sound like jet engines!”

A simple passive heatsink has been shown to boost performance significantly in the MacBook Neo.

The throttling of the chips in Apple’s lower end systems are an intentional form of price segmentation. The MacBook Pro won’t be any faster than the Air if the Air was just cooled properly.

I would unironically take a fan in my phone if it stopped it from throttling, dimming the screen, and halting charging when it’s a hot day in direct sunlight. It would just have to make sense in the context of a phone design, of course, which is a challenge.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/118431

There are phones on the market with detachable active cooling solutions to help with sustained intense gameplay:

https://rog.asus.com/phones/rog-phone-9-pro/

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longislandguidoyesterday at 2:25 AM

When he said games did you assume he meant Solitaire?