Correctness of this statement is only notional.
All of their current models can have much better thermals without increasing their bulk if they actually tried to make it so. Quite number of other makers have superior thermals in even thinner packages, and, more importantly, cheaper ones.
So far, none of their recent models show a single sign of thermal engineering being being done as such. Their 16 inch model has a thermal solution I would only see in a $300 white label laptop. Yes, they added few extra millimetres to fans, but at the same time they still use the same single skinny heatpipe, and tiny radiators.
And all of that is when they have access to the best parts, and fabrication services on the market. If you look closely on their BOM, they have many surprisingly low spec parts, and very minimalistic, spartan design decision.
Which "$300 white label laptop" has equivalent thermal design to the 16" MBP?
Which "other makers" actually have "superior thermals in even thinner packages" that are "cheaper"? That sounds like bullshit to me, given what I've seen and experienced in the PC market, where loud fans that run all the time are very common.
1: The thermal solutions in macbooks are comparable to some $300 laptops
2: Other companies do laptops that are just as thin and powerful as macbooks but have much better thermals.
The list they posted is 2, not 1.
The relevant comparison is to the $2400 MBP base price.
And even when the Aero is running games or training a neural net, it's only ~70°C
Thermal zones in servers is a good example of low physical footprint and high density power consumption that cools quite well. The engineering effort being spent on a good thermal solution can cause a device that is thin to outperform a thicker device.
It's just that Apple does not seem to be spending the resources there.
But the same design constraints were used in a mini-itx gaming PC on the linus tech tips channel a few months ago.. I can't seem to find the video now though. The thermal performance was amazing.
For contrast, I've got a Sun Fire T2000 at home that's louder than the airliners flying overhead (my current and previous apartment both happen to be under airport flight paths, for SFO and RNO, respectively). For obvious reasons (at least until I can figure out how to get a reliable network connection to my garage) that one gets run pretty sparingly, lol
It's not just that they haven't put enough engineering effort in - they consciously made a design tradeoff.
But yeah it's all trade-offs.
The Microsoft Surface Books also have a 1060 inside, but they are whisper quiet.
Yes. And it's not even a subtle marketing feature. Reviewers ogle over internal designs.
But it's also partly in their dna. Landing on the wrong side of compromise is something they've been doing for a long time even in desktops.