There's something weird going on because MKBHD just put out his review and his experience on when it heats up has been strange: youtube.com/watch?v=cBpGq-vDr2Y&t=674s
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iPhone 15 Pro Max Thermalgate (yup, it's happening): Pics of how you're coping
- Thread starter bmustaf
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TLDW: fine in the sun in Florida at max brightness taking photos. Got hot scrolling instagram…
He hinted at the chip then played it safe and said it could be software. He was in airplane mode listening to Spotify and scrolling Instagram (off-line?).
“You know who” says it’s not the chip but the failure of heat dissipation due to reduction of weight. On some phones it is fine but if a substandard chip heats up out of spec the designed heat dissipation will fail and the device heats up. Also, it heats up on phone calls and stuff that should not be a software issue.
What a mess…
But at least he was brave enough to own up that it did happen to him.
Right?? They wouldn't let issues get out there before testing! For a totally hypothetical situation, like, no WAY Apple engineers would ever let a cell phone—that you hold in your HAND—have an issue where if you hold it the "wrong way" (you know, with your human HAND) it would block the PHONE signal. No WAY something crazy like that would happen!!
It would be enticing for a multi trillion company to take this risk on their best selling product? Give me a break.
Went to the Apple store today, one of the base iPhone 15s (with A16) was very, very hot even though it was just sitting there. There must be some sort of software/firmware issue going on here, nothing to do with the Pro or the A17 Pro.
That's complete conjecture. There's no evidence whatsoever that Apple has done this. Even random iPhone 15 base models with the A16, some of them are sitting in the Apple Store running very hot.
It's a software issue. Some people get so swept up in baseless nonsense, it frankly should be embarrassing.
Die binning is a very common practice in the industry. It happens everyday. Even Apple does this. The M series is binned. Apple binned the A5 and put it in other devices. I'm not saying they are doing it to the A17. It's obviously speculation. The A series is hard to do as there is only one iteration. Some A18s will likely be a binned A18 pro, if the rumors are to be believed.
If you look at the the 11:54 mark his top app in terms of battery use was Instagram at 24% but he didn't attribute the heat to the app. But someone else posted this earlier in the week: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-app-for-me-and-i-have-a-fix-for-you.2404888/
I doubt it's one app doing this...I don't even have instagram. I wonder how many people do.
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I'll wait until I receive my (and my wife's) 15 Pro Max in a few weeks before I freak out, but if this is really a thing it'll be extremely disappointing after waiting 6 years to upgrade and buying the most advanced and expensive phone Apple makes.
Hopefully something that can be fixed with a software update, but there will probably be compromises made.
Hopefully something that can be fixed with a software update, but there will probably be compromises made.
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Firstly, Apple clearly indicates when they bin chips to certain core counts.
Secondly, if you take the following into account:
- Running the iPhone 15 Pro at full tilt in benchmarks or gaming doesn't heat up the phone worse than previous models
- iPhones running different chips just sitting in the Apple stores are also randomly running very hot
- Reviewers like MKBHD have found that the phone can heat up aggressively when doing very little, whereas when they are using the phone heavily it stays cool
How could you possibly think Apple secretly binning the chips and using lower quality ones in some phones is the cause of this whole heatgate thing?
I am not making excuses for Apple but from the many posts I have seen over the launch weekend and this week, I can say some of the people making claims were most definitely lying and/ or blowing things way out of portion.
There may be some legit cases were some users got defective phones that are overheating, but I feel like there would be way more people flooding forums and apple stores returning phones if it was an massive wide spread issue of phones about to explode in peoples hands. It would be making national headlines and Apple would have made a statement by now.
There may be some legit cases were some users got defective phones that are overheating, but I feel like there would be way more people flooding forums and apple stores returning phones if it was an massive wide spread issue of phones about to explode in peoples hands. It would be making national headlines and Apple would have made a statement by now.
My 15p was super hot on 1hr zoom call walking around outside. On two occasions .My 13p did NOT have this issues.
But I will say that 1 hour Zoom calls sharing audio and video plus walking outside in heat ( I assume), would make your phone heat up, which is normal.
It's embarrassing to assume Apple doesn't use binned dies. They absolutely do. Likely not the A17 as that would be scandalous on a single iteration chip. Maybe over engineered to allow for a broader spec. N3B is more complex than N3E which all other TSMC customers will use. The A12z was a bummer A12x. Lower bin spec so they disabled a GPU. Worth noting Apple has a deal with TSMC to not pay for dies not meeting spec until they reach certain yields.
Anyway, could be software. Early reports on 17.1 beta look promising for this issue. But I'm certainly not embarrassed to discuss even remote possibilities.
Anyway, could be software. Early reports on 17.1 beta look promising for this issue. But I'm certainly not embarrassed to discuss even remote possibilities.
Hell, a 1 hour Zoom call in an air conditioned office makes my M1 Pro MacBook Pro heat up.
But there are reviews online saying the 15pm does get crazy hot running benchmarks and even throttling. While some others run fine. Sure, still could be software. There are tons of variables that could make it manifest. I picked my theory, everyone else has there's. Lol
As far as the claims of low binned chips I see a couple of problems (I won't claim it's not true but until Apple is forthcoming everything is just conjecture)... 1) if true they are inviting a class action lawsuit in the US in which they could very well lose, and 2) the EU/UK have far more comprehensive anti-lemon laws then the US and the EU would have a field day with Apple. I suspect if you lumped all the complaints together in one pile, it would amount to 1% of all units sold so far (again, conjecture on my part).
Define crazy hot?
All phones throttle during benchmarks. All of them.
So it did make national headlines yesterday, in the national news. I was at Apple Store there was a long line of people returning phones. They even acknowledged the issue. I experienced it first hand with two pro devices! Don't think its made up..