Why do most gaming laptops have vents on the bottom?

The gaming laptops that I am familiar with don't fit the traditional laptop role. Their battery life sucks and they are heavy due to the powerful hardware which really hinders their portability. They are more for people who need a portable desktop. I would almost never recommend a gaming laptop but they do fit specific needs.

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I'm a long-time PC gamer but first time gaming laptop ("notebook?") owner. I'm traveling at the moment, so I had to ditch my desktop for the laptop. Mine is still fairly portable so I'm often tempted to use it on my lap… but I'm always afraid to cover those vents so I'm left scrambling looking for something in my hotel room or AirBNB that would approximate a lap desk. 😅

I've been baffled by this design decision. Thanks for the context. It makes a bit more sense now.

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- I can assure you the laptop will not incinerate itself if you cover those vents for a while. I have used my laptop in a bed as it was charging and blocking those vents made it a bit slower but that's about it.
  
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- There’s definitely a market for mobile PC gaming which is why the Steam Deck sells so well, as well as the new market of competitor products (Asus Rog Ally, for example).
  
  That said, the vent location is a bit bizarre. Perhaps the manufacturer intended the laptop to be mounted or something… ?
  
  Perhaps if it’s not too late, you can return the laptop when you get back from traveling.
  
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- Chop up a sturdy cardboard box to make a panel the size of the laptop. Barely noticeable addition to your luggage.
  
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- It'll just thermal throttle. If it keeps getting hotter then once it hits the limit it'll just shut off.
  
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- What laptop is it? I have an MSI GS66 and there's a "cooler boost" button to throw the fans into overdrive which keeps it cool even on my lap. Does yours have something similar?
  
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This. I got a gaming laptop because gpus were very expensive back then and this was a good one comparable with a desktop equiv. I go to Europe for 2 months a year so this is super convenient. I have never used it on battery beyond moving from one plug in location to another. While gaming battery life is like 45 minutes.

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Because it’s the only place they can evacuate heat. The sides are covered by I/O and are limited size.

Gaming laptops really aren’t made for using in your lap. They’re more a portable desktop that you connect things to.

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The bottom is usually the intake, exhaust on the back

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You can also vent heat between the keyboard and the screen. I have an HP laptop that does that.

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- Ahh yes, the ol' finger toaster. Great in the winter, terrible in the summer.
  
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No laptops are meant to be used on your lap. A better name for them would be portable PC, but that isn't as catchy.

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Because despite their name, laptops are meant to be placed on a hard flat surface when in use - NOT on your lap, a pillow, etc. They have little rubber feet that allow just enough room for the hot air to escape, and when placed on your lap the air gets trapped. Manufacturers warn about the effects of the hot air on your lap for extended periods of time.

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I got burned playing CSGO on my Lap the day France won the football world cup

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It's by necessity. The hardware in a gaming laptop gets a lot hotter, so you need wider openings that are closer to the heat generating parts. If you were to do this on the sides, you'd need to build the case bigger and put a much stronger heat transfer system to account for the smaller and further opening.

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How does it help though when the user inevitably uses it on their lap and covers those vents?

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- I think that it’s fairly safe to say that nobody uses a gaming laptop on their lap when gaming, particularly mouse and keyboard players. I only use mine when I travel for work, and I bring a proper keyboard and mouse with me.
  
  That said, I do occasionally use it on my lap. When not gaming, the heat produced is pretty low and it works just fine. It also has small intake vents on the side.
  
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- I had the same thought as you before and one of my friends said “many people don’t call them ‘laptops’ anymore but instead call them notebooks”.
  
  I found that name very fitting. Barely anyone uses their (gaming) laptop on their lap anymore. Usually on a desk in a thing that holds the laptop up to ventilate.
  
  Note: I don’t know the exact name of it in English.
  
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- It doesn't, the assumption is that users will not use them directly on their laps for heavy loads.
  
  There isn't much they can do. There isn't enough room on the sides to vent all of that heat. This is the tradeoff you make when you ask for 200 watts of performance in a laptop form factor.
  
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Very few folks use a gaming laptop on their lap without some kind of stand or hard table designed for it.

Battery life is too short and you need a place for a mouse.

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- Not to mention a gaming laptop will literally cook the skin off your legs.
  
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The Sides are mostly "reserved" for I/O or the inner space ist already used by the battery. The Back IS possible and often used but mostly blocked by the display too. Front also blocked by the battery.

So what remains ist the bottom and the manufacurers try to minimize the problem with lifted feets which is mostly useless ob the lap.

But I consider gaming laptops not as mobility foccussed. They're more foccussed on the ability to carry around but using on a desk.

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Not to mention imaging using a laptop that vents hot air out the front.

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- Yes, farting noises from hot air squeezed through the muffin top are the worst.
  
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Having used my gaming laptop on my lap, honestly it doesn't really block the vents. Like 50% of the bottom is vent, so either I have my legs together and there are gaps at the side, or I have my legs apart and there is a gap in the middle.

But also yes, it's about packing it up and setting it up significantly easier and faster, as opposed to actually doing things on the go. If I let my laptop use full performance on its battery, I would expect sub-30 minute battery life, as opposed to the ~2 hours I get when the GPU is turned off.

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While we still call them laptops, they are not actually laptops, they are notebooks. The last laptop I saw had a 80286 for a processor (odds are it was junked before you were even born). Somehow the name laptop stuck, but they are notebook form factors and never intended to be used on laps.

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a 80286 for a processor (odds are it was junked before you were even born)

Ouch, right in the age.

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This is the real answer. Laptop is a misnomer. I had to explain this to many people when I worked in repair.

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The MacBook Air I just bought would disagree :)

I think these can officially be called laptops again, because they are cooled passively and you can absolutely use them on your lap.

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- They are ergonomicly wrong on your lap. They can be used there but they are best used on an airplane tray. (Still ergonomicly wrong, but given the constraints the best we can do)
  
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How many people use gaming laptops on their lap?

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I would love to use mine on my lap… if not for the intake on the bottom. I'm traveling, so I don't have a lot of control over what furniture I have access to as I move from place to place.

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- Fair enough!
  
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- I have a Targus cooling pad that works pretty well for that. It's like a thin plastic tray thing with vents and a USB-powered fan to provide extra cooling, but I mostly use it without the fan to elevate my laptop off my lap and allow for extra airflow. Something similar might work well for your use case.
  
  That said, I've noticed my laptop's fan will start to make an obnoxious rattling noise if I use it on my lap for too long. Fan rattle is a known issue with my laptop and it goes away once it's sat on my desk for a while, but it can be annoying so YMMV.
  
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I do sometimes, but I use one of those lap desk things so my laptop can breathe.

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A windows laptop no, an Apple silicon MacBook, yes.

Honestly I’d call their fanless or mostly fanless design one of their biggest selling points.

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Gaming laptops aren’t really intended to be used on your lap (no place to put and use a mouse), at least not while you’re gaming.

For the cooling to work you need an air intake and exhaust. The intake is most commonly at the bottom because it’s the closest to your CPU which requires fresh and cool air. The exhaust is either at the back or the sides.

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I’d bet if you looked at manuals they’d say “use on a hard flat surface.” Apple refers to them as “portables” rather than “laptops” for this exact reason, so when customers talk about a machine getting hot on their lap, the response can be “use it on a table or a desk to allow proper airflow.

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MacBooks don't have any vents on the bottom, so it seems it would actually be safe to use them on your lap.

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- no that's the thing it still need the airflow for convection cooling
  
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- The aluminum body is in part a giant heat sink, including the bottom case.
  
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Apple refers to them as “portables” rather than “laptops” for this exact reason

They may use the term somewhere when they want to collectively refer to MacBooks and iPads, but they absolutely use the term “laptop.” Big letters at the top of the comparison chart on the MacBook Pro page: “Which laptop is right for you?” The tag line for the M1 MacBook Air: “The most affordable Mac laptop to get things done on the go.” The MacBook Air line, incidentally, no longer has vents at all.

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- Huh, marketing changed that since I worked there.
  
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'Tis why I have a 6-fan laptop pad between the laptop and my legs. Keeps my legs from burning, allows heat evac too.

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It's not intended for you to use a laptop on your lap actually

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Honestly I've never really used a laptop on my lap unless I'm forced to. They work better on a desk

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You know, I've never thought about why they were called laptops. 🤔

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Actually you will block those vents if you use on your lap, and overheat the system (and burn your leg perhaps!)

You know those boards with a beanbag cushion underneath - you can use that, or some kind of laptop table.

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For speed

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where else would you put them? with my laptop there's a big vent across the bottom and you can't really cover the whole thing with your legs

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Even if you can't cover the whole thing with your legs, I assume they're designed for those vents to be entirely uncovered.

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- Also, depending on load those vents can airfry your legs.
  
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Apple put them on the sides (cut into the edge it’s as much on the bottom as it is on the side) as well in the center below the screen on 14“ and 16” MacBook Pro models. Works great, even though the fan doesn’t run 95% of the time anyway, there’s at least multiple spots where fresh air can get in even if one or two vents are blocked.

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- The new MBPs can do that because they use super power efficient CPUs (ARM is way more efficient than x86) and no onboard dGPU.
  
  Can’t disagree they work great, but it’s an order of magnitude of easier to cool hardware
  
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