Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 15 Pro Max A17 Effects on Phone Longevity?
- Thread starter Sully
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I also aim for longevity. I just got a 15 Pro, and noticed the camera seems to get excessively warm, dropping 8% battery after taking 10-20 photos in 10 minutes on version 17.0.3. Is it the same for anyone else?
The camera is the main thing I use. Other tasks don't seem to cause much heating, so I hope it's just a software issue specific to the camera that can be patched.
The camera is the main thing I use. Other tasks don't seem to cause much heating, so I hope it's just a software issue specific to the camera that can be patched.
Well, yea. It’s doing (edited) Trillions of computations every time you use the camera. That was outlined in a keynote years ago. There’s concurrent depth mapping, object recognition, scene occlusion, HDR, etc. There’s a shocking amount that all smartphones do from simply “taking a picture”. That’s why Apple designs their entire photography pipeline including the image signal processor and the neural chip. It’s all involved, but to the user it’s more or less the same “point and click” experience.
Modern smartphone cameras are actually engineering marvels when you look under the hood and see what’s happening.
Photo is from the IPhones XS Keynote, and things have only gotten more complex from there.
Note that this doesn’t mean a heavy *sustained* load.
Last edited:
Thanks for the perspective. I just ran a test:
My 15 Pro (A17 Pro) versus a friend's base 14 (A15). My iPhone was much older so I didn't have context for camera app power usage on the newer series.
Left the camera app open for a few minutes, then took the exact same amount of pictures (one phone in each hand). The 15 pro only felt maybe slightly warmer, so it's actually running "within range" I suppose.
- Both started at 59% battery.
- 15 Pro ended the test at 53% (ProMotion is off)
- 14 ended the test at 55%
So very similar results, operating similarly. Though I would have hoped that the two year newer processor and twice the price would have made a big gain, not a small deficit...
Might confirm that A17 Pro is slightly more power hungry. Hope they can tweak that...
Are you using the camera app 24/7? Then probably not. With "heavy load" I mean something like running a cryptominer or doing any other heavy-duty calculation.
I remember when the iPhone 7 was released. At my previous job, those would frequently have earpieces that would stop working. I feel like issues like that are what should have gotten more attention than what “thermalgate” or whatever this temperature issue is called.
That issue would render the phone useless, not to mention the horrible cellular connectivity due to it being the first generation Intel cellular radio.
That issue would render the phone useless, not to mention the horrible cellular connectivity due to it being the first generation Intel cellular radio.
Not a hardware engineer, but a very experienced user. In my workflow the 15 PM runs significantly cooler than the 14 P did. YMMV.
The 14 Pro and the 15 Pro have high output cameras, a good thing. However one must learn to promptly turn off the camera after captures. I have been doing this (for the same reasons) with DSLRs since the Nikon D2x circa 2003. Using that practice I have found the 15 PM to manage heat very well, better than the 14 P did.
Sorry but I disagree
1) with the premise that the important thing is how power hungry an iPhone chip may be and
2) that the 2-years-older processor is operating similarly to the new 15 Pro.
The newer camera and newer chip are doing a lot more, not operating similarly; a good thing. And unless battery life is suddenly much worse than previous (and it is not), we do not really care about some artificially fabricated idea of power hungry.
My typical day has a routine for how the phone is used, when it is charged (always wirelessly), etc. The 15 PM has maintained consistently higher battery levels than the 14 P used to do with the same daily routine.
Last edited:
Good thing there’s a cycle counter for the iPhone 15 then.
If your battery drops below 80% capacity long before you reach 500 cycles, then maybe we have a problem.
Until then, this statement is just pure nonsense.
I agree with the saner voices in this thread: the idea that there will be damage to the components at just above the temperature of a human body is very far-fetched.
BUT, my iPhone 14 Pro battery was nearing 80% with under 200 cycles. I’m really hoping my 15PM fares better.
I fail to grasp why folks agonize over battery % and cycles unless they are having some kind of issue. Battery management is for iOS to deal with, all users need to do is charge when feasible; in my case 100% wirelessly. Especially folks with 14Ps going to 15PMs like us; who cares?
I’d say because the functionality was noticeably affected. Almost 20% less life before I traded it in only 1 year later… it wasn’t lasting me through the day anymore, whereas it had barely done so when I first bought it.
You’re saying I shouldn’t have cared that the phone had become significantly less useful in the year I owned it, just because I traded it in recently? Confused. I still had to deal with it for months before that.
Umm, no. In the first sentence of my post I said "...unless they are having some kind of issue." If it wasn’t lasting me through the day like you say, that is an issue.
I'm glad it's working better for you! My upgrade was more than 5 years. Having to consciously manage my battery usage everyday. So I was hoping that the battery life / power efficiency jump would be significant, and I wouldn't have to think about battery at all. Camera is one of my main uses, so that's the reason for my concern with it's "power usage". I need more time to test it out and I am still hopeful however, it's certainly an upgrade. Just being overly attentive with my big leap forward.
The a17 pro is a new chip design so there is bound to be some issues with it hopefully next year, they will have all the bugs worked out in the a18 pro.
Usage also kills battery.
Or should we say, degrades, since even a battery at 80% capacity still can be used.
Literally everything that a battery is built to do and or handle will degrade it.
Now *that* is an issue, and more than likely if you would’ve taken it to Apple with your 200 cycles in comparison to their advertised 500 cycles, they probably would’ve given you a battery replacement.
And if they didn’t, there would certainly be an even bigger problem.
But that is besides the point.
Its amazing how time flies. I can only imagine the sit down they had with Phil to let him know he won't be doing any more presentations.Well, yea. It’s doing (edited) Trillions of computations every time you use the camera. That was outlined in a keynote years ago. There’s concurrent depth mapping, object recognition, scene occlusion, HDR, etc. There’s a shocking amount that all smartphones do from simply “taking a picture”. That’s why Apple designs their entire photography pipeline including the image signal processor and the neural chip. It’s all involved, but to the user it’s more or less the same “point and click” experience.
Modern smartphone cameras are actually engineering marvels when you look under the hood and see what’s happening.
Photo is from the IPhones XS Keynote, and things have only gotten more complex from there.
Note that this doesn’t mean a heavy *sustained* load.
I always really enjoyed his presenting, but he’s been one of “the faces” going back to the 90’s. There’s clearly a concerted effort to bring new names and faces in each keynote now.
Every A series is a new chip. The next one will be on a completely different node as well, N3E vs the current N3B and N3E has no future roadmap.
There’s nothing wrong with the A17, just an army of content creators and half-wit tech “journalists” who keep willfully conflating things and can’t be bothered to learn even the basics of what they’re espousing.