the 13" ones cool themselves fine. They can usually keep the CPU at higher power for longer than other ultrabooks. The 15" models definitely have worse thermals than the competition though.
The 15in/16in ones actually have better thermal cooling than the competition. You can usually get the 16in i9 to boost to 60w turbo, which is 30% more than you can get an XPS 15 to do.
My 2018 MacBook Pro will throttle if you try to use both the GPU and CPU under full load.
My 2017 Dell XPS 15 would throttle if you looked at it. And the coil whine could be heard across the room.
My 2021 M1 MacBook Air is completely silent and barely gets warm under full load. It only has 8GB of RAM and outperforms the XPS and MacBook Pro. It also cost less than half those machines.
The m1 is very early still for compatibility, also doesn’t have 32 to 64 GB Ram. That might work for you but not everyone is the same.
Looking forward to seeing the new 16” MBP with Apple silicon, but I suspect ubiquitous software compatibility will be 3 or 4 years away similar to when Apple switched from PowerPC to intel
Yes, everything I use is already M1 compatible. And unless you need to run multiple VMs the 8GB of RAM doesn't seem to be an issue for anyone. What do you use that isn't compatible?
Apple laptops are not able to cool themselves if used to any medium or higher capacity.
A laptop cooler or cabinet fans underneath to draw air away are a must if you want anywhere close to the cpu power you are purchasing.
An external keyboard is also a must to own a MacBook 2015-201i+ if it’s from the special years of dust existing on Earth,