My laptop is not that much bulkier (something like 3 millimeters thicker) but it performs faster and its cooling is excellent.
Yeah, we talked about it already. Your laptop runs its airflow though the holes in the bottom chassis, this way the fans can suck in maximal possible amount of air. That is the design used by most laptops in this segment, since it is very simple and efficient way to maximise heat exchange. An obvious drawback is that you have to make sure that your intake vents are not occluded (and also, the bottom of the laptop can get very hot with this design, which is not optimal for lacquered wooden desks).
MacBook Pro on the other hand performs its air intake through inlet vents located on the sides of the laptop and its bottom is solid. This means that you can use the laptop in different environments, such as on your knees or on a blanket (like I am doing right now) with minimal risk of blocking your vents. But the drawback of this design is a) the air inlet vents are obviously smaller so you get less airflow and b) the fans are quite far from the inlet vents, which reduces the airflow efficiency. Essentially, MBP relies on creating a negative pressure inside the laptop which causes the air to flow though the sides and the already very cramped internals.
That is the reason why I believe that Apple's cooling solution is pretty damn good. They chose a more complex design in order to make the laptop more versatile, even if this design is inherently less efficient than direct air suction through the bottom grills, and they still achieve a reasonable result. Funnily enough, one reason why it works is probably because it is so thin
Its like a vacuum inside. It's quite smart IMO.
Bottomline: if Apple adopted a design like every other laptop and put inlet vents on the bottom, directly in front of the vents, then yes, the cooling performance of the MBP would most certainly improve. Would it make it a better laptop though? I doubt it. Many users choose Apple exactly because of those little things like absence of bottom grills. It makes the laptop just overall more useable.
