MacBook Air performs well without a MacBook Pro’s cooling fan, but now a tiny cooling chip can bridge the difference between the two laptops, according to a new report.
The thin membrane-based AirJet chip fits in Apple’s lightest laptop and boosts its performance when needed. Too bad you can’t just buy it and install it.
Frore Systems said its AirJet membrane-based cooling chip boosts MacBook Air performance
The thin-and-light MacBook Air gets that way in part by losing the cooling fan found in MacBook Pro. And MacBook Air throttles down under a heavy work load for that reason, reducing performance while protecting itself from overheating.
But now Frore Systems said its AirJet cooling chip serves as a fan and boosts MacBook Air performance, according to Macworld. And apparently an M2 MacBook Air with AirJet can match an M2 MacBook Pro’s performance, at least as far as one benchmark test goes.
The magazine’s web article said:
The AirJet is what Frore calls a “solid-state active cooling chip” that measures 27.5 by 41.5 by 2.8 mm, a lot smaller and thinner than a typical computer fan. It’s so thin that Frore was able to take an M2 15-inch MacBook Air and fit a set of AirJet chips inside the laptop. AirJet can keep the MacBook Air temperature at a proper level so the chip doesn’t have to throttle down. Using the Cinebench R23 benchmark, an off-the-shelf M2 MacBook Air was 7 percent slower than the M2 MacBook Pro. But the modified M2 MacBook Air with an AirJet setup matched the Cinebench score of the MacBook Pro.
Inside AirJet, various materials vibrate membranes to suck in air through laptop intakes and out through vents. Frore said it added intake vents near a MacBook Air’s hinge and showed how it could use speaker holes as exhaust in a MacBook Air demo.
Can I get AirJet for my MacBook Air?
Unfortunately, AirJet isn’t for sale, so you can’t buy it to supercharge your MacBook Air.
But on the bright side, it’s a proof of concept that Apple could choose to use to jack up MacBook Air performance. Or it could even save space in other Apple computers and make them smaller, like a downsized Mac Studio, for example.
In other words, if you don’t need as much space for a heat sink and physical fans, the box can be smaller, giving the computer a smaller footprint on your desk.
