movingincircles

jdw said:

I could have told you that, even before Mr. Lee's findings.  A lot of people who embrace butterfly keyboards and impossibly thin designs don't give much consideration to thermal throttling.  But it is a reality.  Another sad fact is that it has been shown that Apple uses vastly inferior thermal paste between GPU and CPU chips and their heatsinks.  It would only cost them pennies more to use a half-way decent thermal paste.  So in addition to the fact that the thermal cooling in super thin designs like the 2016 and later MBP is inadequate to prevent throttling, thermal paste used does not transfer heat as well is it could.  Here's a SnazzyLabs Video that might help convince some of you.

I've long called for the thinning of the MBP to end.  The thickness of the 2015 MBP is quite thin yet not too thin.  It allows for a good sized battery and for better cooling.  And while I think Apple should continue to strive for thinness, that doesn't mean it has to be the MBP.  Supreme thinness and lightness is what the MacBook is for.  Butterfly keyboards too.  But the MBP needs to be "Pro" all around in terms of cooling, thermal performance, battery size, ports-a-plenty, an internal SD card slot, and thick enough to accommodate a great keyboard with sufficient key travel that (a) will satisfy pretty much all users and (b) won't be harmed by specs of dust under the keys.  Indeed, on my 2015 MBP 15" I can remove the keys.

These important considerations need to be made more serious by Apple engineers in future designs.  Take everything you want away on the MacBook, but put the beefy stuff in the MacBook Pro.  Make the MacBook Air a hybrid of the two, and then you have 3 product lines that can please every Mac notebook buyer.  Seriously.  It's not that hard.  It's just a matter of Apple rethinking its design decisions.