iPhone 15 Pro Max A year later and Apple never fixed the thermal issues

[antiprotest]

I talked to Tim, he said the fix is coming out soon… He even told me that the fix gonna be name iPhone 16 Pro Max🤪

And the fix for a new even worse problem with the 16 Pro Max will be 17 Pro Max.

 

[JokoWidodo]

just get the 15 Plus

 

[ISignedUpToAskThis]

Not had any issues with my 15 Pro but a family member's 15 Pro Max gets very very hot playing any of the AAA games e.g. Alien Isolation, I'm talking within 3-4 minutes almost being too hot to hold.

 

[Malus120]

Unsure if they could without throttling the phone and we all know people lost their minds about that type of thing before. Not to say that it’s right in anyway and no idea how this didn’t flag on any stress test but only so much you can do at this point if you’re Apple.

Surprisingly, I haven’t heard it become a huge issue and only now some YouTubers are talking about it with the new 16 inbound as what they would like to see fixed.

Are you referring to "Batterygate," because if so that's pretty ridiculous. The anger and bad press Apple received over that was 100% justified.

The issue wasn't the throttling so much as as it was that they were:
1. Doing so in a non transparent manner, without user consent (at the time the link between battery health and stability was not well understood even by a lot of tech literate people)
2. Often cutting performance in half (or worse) and making the phones feel choppy, laggy, and generally unpleasant to use even when doing basic tasks.
3. Refusing warranty/AppleCare service on iPhone's that were throttling because their battery degradation did not meet Apple's threshold for replacement.
4. Gaslighting people reporting problems saying "Everything's fine," "Have you tried wiping and resetting up your iPhone" or "iOS just does more stuff now" despite KNOWING that the phones were indeed being intentionally slowed down.
5. Applying the throttling algorithm in an arbitrary way. Phone's generally become "eligible" with the iOS update that came out 12 months after their initial release.

I know all this because I had an iPhone 6S, experienced the issues before they were acknowledged, collected reams of data showing the phone was throttling and that my battery seemed to have issues, and Apple still refused to provide service under AppleCare+, stating there was "nothing wrong with my phone." Low and behold, corporate policy changed in response to the backlash and their tune changed real quick.

Anyway, to the OP, I'd try and get that phone looked at or replaced while it's still under warranty. Unless you live in an extremely hot environment and are using the phone outside/without AC, you should NOT be getting the overheating while on a Teams call. Before taking it in check background activities, battery usage, etc, and make sure you haven't installed some app that's causing issues in the background.
As for intense 3D games I don't know what you're playing but do remember, it's a thin, fanless device, so expectations need to be reasonable.

 

[Sami13496]

Wasn’t it Instagram app that was the culprit that caused the overheating in the first place?

 

[sunapple]

Admittedly I haven't said anything about it either on here. I've been to Apple twice and they told me its just how the phone operates and that too much stress on it will cause it to heat up. I get that, but it shouldn't get so hot that it becomes unusable to the point where Apple locks the phone up. Now that the 16 is coming soon I really hope they've fixed the issues with it.

Third time’s the charm. Seriously, Apple should fix your phone, it’s not working properly. It’s crazy you would buy another phone without getting this fixed, that’s pretty poor service on their part.

 

[uacd]

iPhone 15 Pro Max

15 minutes into the call my phone gets too hot

Not a bug, a feature!
In September it will be whole 16 minutes!!!

Okay, fun aside - it ain’t fun.
Apple has some issues with batteries and quality control which extends far into the iPhone 6 series. Remember how every newspaper had headlines about Apple throttling performance?

Best you can do for now:
- turn off every app in background app refresh
- turn off SIRI
- turn off automatic updates of iOS and apps
- do not use your phone in hot conditions. In summer it is more possible to get your phone hot than ever
- turn of dynamic wallpapers and gyroscope movements of these wallpapers
- turn off most widgets, use only those you need like weather and batteries
- use battery saving mode more often. It is a pity one cannot turn it on forever like on Samsung phones
- disable iCloud and Photos backup

 

[hagjohn]

My 15 Pro Max runs hot charging (plugged in with Apple cables/ power adapters or magsafe). It runs hot in the car with CarPlay, Waze (or maps) and playing music. I bought a wireless CarPlay dongle and that helps but on long trips, I take my case off and charge it when needed. I have 100% max battery still though. My 14 Pro Max ran hot and had a degraded battery, which is why I purchased a 15.

This is why I think it is a mistake to go thinner on phones.

 

[btrach144]

I’ve owned every iPhone gen and have a separate SE gen 2 for my work/Microsoft apps.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the hottest running iPhone I’ve ever owned. The A17/M3 is really of poor quality.

I’m dumping this junk and look forward to the 16 PM and it’s higher quality A18/M4 based chip.

 

[johannnn]

I wish there was a way to disable the performance cores without also putting the screen to like 30hz. Low power mode isn't really useful because of the low hz.

 

[brofkand]

Apple never fixed the Antennagate design flaw with the iPhone 4 either. Or Staingate. Or the butterfly keyboards.

 

[LockOn2B]

I wish there was a way to disable the performance cores without also putting the screen to like 30hz. Low power mode isn't really useful because of the low hz.

Low power mode doesn’t turn off the P cores, though... If memory serves right they’re downclocked by about 25%

 

[jeroenvip]

Does it get so hot that you can burn witches at the stake ?

 

[Momof2.1107]

I use a case, so I never notice how hot my 15PM gets until I take the case off and use it, or when it’s charging.

 

[Shirasaki]

Never had overheating issues with my 15 pro. Lately decided to go without an apple silicon case and to my surprise, this thing gets hot out of the blue during the day with just safari and instagram.

Then i put the case back and it feels cool again.

Long story short: thick apple silicon case has is a necessity and people going naked are prone to notice it more than cased people.

Umm but that only hides the potential problem however. I mean, using a case.
I used a case before, scratched all over the place anyway, so I gave up. Now use my iPhone 15 Pro Max naked. Doesn’t feel too hot to touch but it does get hot sometimes, noticeably hot.

 

[ctjack]

Umm but that only hides the potential problem however. I mean, using a case.
I used a case before, scratched all over the place anyway, so I gave up. Now use my iPhone 15 Pro Max naked. Doesn’t feel too hot to touch but it does get hot sometimes, noticeably hot.

I remember the days of previous iphones, where it would get frying hot even in a case.

Currently, Apple fixed it halfway, so that if one is using the case, then that person can never know about this issue.

I tried to go caseless and just couldn’t live with a phone that gets hotter than my body temp. Probably living in a 104f climate currently doesn’t help.

 

[CMoore515]

Eh I only had the issue early on until Instagram released their update. Other than that, it only gets hot now because I'm on the 18.1 beta train and I expect that. Never got or gets too hot to hold though

 

[Royksöpp]

I tried a fresh install the other day and it seems to have fixed it. It gets a little bit warm, but nowhere near as hot as before. I just wish I would have tried that months ago.

 

[AdamHarbour]

I can’t see anywhere where the OP has spoken to Apple to sort the problem ! Faulty phone maybe

 

[Populus]

I tried a fresh install the other day and it seems to have fixed it. It gets a little bit warm, but nowhere near as hot as before. I just wish I would have tried that months ago.

Yeah, a fresh install is usually the best way to sort this type of problems.

I use a case, so I never notice how hot my 15PM gets until I take the case off and use it, or when it’s charging.

Well, that may actually be a disadvantage because just like pain for animals, heat in a smartphone is a sign that something is wrong or, at least, consuming an excess of power. Sadly, we don’t have Activity Monitor on iOS so we must rely on heat as an indicator.

I wish there was a way to disable the performance cores without also putting the screen to like 30hz. Low power mode isn't really useful because of the low hz.

Definitely, I would use low power mode a lot more on my iPad Pro if it didn’t disable pro-motion.

 

[SpotOnT]

If using an app (Microsoft Teams or FaceTime) causes your phone to shutdown, than either the phone or the app are defective.

I can’t imagine using a phone where I can’t have a video call with someone. OP is right to be upset. That is just nuts. How have you managed to last a whole year with that phone!?!

(I just went through a bunch of lectures using Microsoft Teams on my iPhone 8. No problems at all.)

 

[ThunderSkunk]

One year later and Apple never fixed the thermal issues with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The device just gets too hot when you put it under any type of exertion and it makes it unusable.

I just run my phones on low power mode all the time. Other than shutting the display off after like .5 seconds of non-use or whatever, it's otherwise how I wish they ran all the time.

 

[macfacts]

Solution: vapor chamber

 

[KooL BeAnZ]

My iPhone 15 Pro Max gets really hot even doing basic tasks.

Way hotter than previous phones, and I saw the test whereby it absolutely kills performance after a few minutes and slows down / crashes whereas the Samsung flagship keeps going even when multitasking big apps and games.

Hopefully Apple address this in the 16.

 

[Ratlerbite]

One year later and Apple never fixed the thermal issues with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The device just gets too hot when you put it under any type of exertion and it makes it unusable. This has been my favorite design of the Max models of phone, but it is an abject failure in how the phone performs under pressure. This type of scenario happens to me often. Yesterday, I get on a teams call on my phone. 15 minutes into the call my phone gets too hot and the temperature gauge screen comes on telling me my phone has gotten too hot. It's incredibly frustrating and Apple a year in never figured out how to fix it, or maybe it just can't be fixed.

The heat has also crushed my battery health. This is the first time I've ever come up on a year of owning an iPhone that my battery capacity is below 99%. I'm already at 89% after 1 year. I've taken it to Apple to have it looked at and each time they tell me nothing is the matter with it. I still love the phone and will no doubt by the 16, but this one has been a complete bust for me and I hope Apple moving forward does a better job with managing the thermals of their phones.

I have had the 15 PM since launch and i have clue what your referring to. My phone rarley ever get hit and doesn’t experience any of the issues you are