I'm curious why a tablet doesn't need fans but all laptops do, even the cheap and less powerful netbooks. I thought at first it would be that the screen on a tablet is smaller than a laptop, so the graphics chip doesn't have to be as powerful and so doesn't generate as much heat. But then the new iPads have retina display which have a much bigger resolution than most laptops.
Then I thought maybe it's because tablets don't multitask like laptops can, but some Android tablets can have 2 (at least) apps open at once, and even jailbroken iPads can. While some low end netbooks struggle to run a web browser and word processor.
If you attach a keyboard to tablet you have a laptop, so why do laptops seem to generate disproportionate amounts of heat?
Is the difference between ARM and Intel/AMD chips? If so what is it about the different chip designs that make Intel/AMD produce so much more heat than ARM chips?