Get hot, nope. This thing seems to never get hot. Even in the situation above... a bit warm, but not what anyone would call hot. I have a MacBook Pro 2017, and this thing feels way happier connected to an external monitor than the Intel Macs ever did.

Plus, there's some additional "magic" Apple has put in for external monitors that's really nice. For example, you can shut your laptop lid and all of the apps instantly switch to the 4K Monitor without the old screen resolution change (the 5-10 seconds of black screens and weirdness).