Cat-proof laptop for light use?

[Alexko]

Hi! I love my wife very dearly, but she's a bit of a laptop-destroying machine. Part of the reason for that is she likes to sit on the couch with a blanket, put the laptop on top of it, and use it like that. That would be fine if it weren't for the fact that most laptops have vents on the bottom, and we have two cats, so there's always a bit of hair on the blankets. It gets into the vents, gets stuck into the fans, which then get stuck themselves, and of course fresh air can't get into the device because the vents are blocked by the blanket and, well, you get the picture.

So, I'm looking for something without any vents at all, i.e., fanless, but preferably with a reasonably large display (at least 15"), as the rig will be used for watching videos/movies quite a bit. The ability to run some light games would be a plus, but not a hard requirement—I mean, a fanless device isn't going to work miracles in this regard, anyway. If the laptop could be on the sturdy side, that would also be nice. I was thinking that something with a low-power Ryzen APU would be ideal, but perhaps that's a bit hard to find. Sadly, these days I barely have time to keep up with desktop stuff, so I'm really lost when it comes to laptops.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[orangpelupa]

Lg gram family?

 

[Pressure]

The 15" MacBook Air would be a good choice for this.

 

[cheapchips]

Shave the cats?

 

[Alexko]

Lg gram family?

I did come across this, but when I Google for "LG Gram bottom" I find plenty of pictures showing vents, and a few that don't, so I'm rather confused. LG's website doesn't feature pictures of the bottom side of the laptops, unfortunately. The choice of Intel CPUs with questionable graphics is also a bit disappointing, though not necessarily a deal-breaker.

The 15" MacBook Air would be a good choice for this.

True. Not a fan of Apple, and it's rather stupidly expensive. Plus, some gaming would be nice, which wouldn't be ideal on MacOS, and I believe Windows on Boot Camp is no longer an option with ARM-based Macs. From a purely hardware point of view, however, it fits the bill perfectly.

Shave the cats?

I like your out-of-the-box thinking! But based on what Sphynx cats look like, recurrent nightmares might become an issue.

Thank you all for the suggestions!

 

[milk]

Disapointed to see this thread was not created by @orangpelupa but then was reapointed (just invented that use of the word) that @orangpelupa was the very first reply.

 

[hoom]

You'd think devices named 'laptops' would be like, I dunno designed to run sitting on laps...

Or at least that actual laptop laptops ie fan/ventless would be a reasonably common model in the line-up.
I guess tablets kinda took that market though, so maybe a big tablet?

 

[Pete]

Does your wife place the laptop on the blanket as an extra source of heat? Because that would moot my suggestion of some sort of laptop riser or stand. A wood or bamboo cutting board might work, provided it’s bigger than the laptop to keep hairs and blanket fuzz below. I’d suggest a lighter plastic tray or cutting board, but I’m not sure if the static electricity from it rubbing on the blanket would trap the cat hairs or attract more for the fans to suck up. You could get a perforated metal one and tape some sort of filter on the bottom (seems fiddly), or maybe just use a metal defrosting tray or sheet pan.

Or get a cushioned laptop lap stand like this, though it won’t keep her toes cozy.

 

[Alexko]

You'd think devices named 'laptops' would be like, I dunno designed to run sitting on laps...

Or at least that actual laptop laptops ie fan/ventless would be a reasonably common model in the line-up.
I guess tablets kinda took that market though, so maybe a big tablet?

I hadn't even thought of a tablet, but it's an interesting idea. It would more or less preclude any serious form of gaming (unless we're talking about an x86+Windows tablet), but it could be convenient, and quite cheap. An external keyboard remains an option too.

Does your wife place the laptop on the blanket as an extra source of heat? Because that would moot my suggestion of some sort of laptop riser or stand. A wood or bamboo cutting board might work, provided it’s bigger than the laptop to keep hairs and blanket fuzz below. I’d suggest a lighter plastic tray or cutting board, but I’m not sure if the static electricity from it rubbing on the blanket would trap the cat hairs or attract more for the fans to suck up. You could get a perforated metal one and tape some sort of filter on the bottom (seems fiddly), or maybe just use a metal defrosting tray or sheet pan.

Or get a cushioned laptop lap stand like this, though it won’t keep her toes cozy.

I tried encouraging her to do this, but it doesn't work, precisely because she kind of likes the extra heat, as you suspected, and also because I think she just finds it uncomfortable, for some reason. But when I use a laptop on the couch, I do this. Even an empty pizza box does the job just fine!