iPhone 15 Pro Max Thermalgate (yup, it's happening): Pics of how you're coping

[Clamjuice65]

Really disappointed that the things my 14PM did without any problem/complaint in room temperature environments (you know, just basic stuff like syncing the day's iCloud photos, charging on the reg) now involve "iPhone needs to cool down". I've thrown out all the wireless chargers to try and help reduce heat, but that's not really helping much, either.

So, I've decided to store my iPhone here. A bit inconvenient, yes, but also delicious, because now I just eat ice cream every time I need to charge my phone, get my phone, or the like. Next thread: app recommendations to help manage cholesterol, hahaha.

Other ideas? I'm really not thrilled about putting fridges/freezers/ice packs everywhere I use my phone to just basically use the damn $1,600 thing when last year's $1,600 thing did this just fine and Apple thought I "needed" Titanium for some reason, because, what, that 15g weight they saved makes any difference at all? They've more than offset that 15g "saving" with the fact they have broken daily, regular usage of the phone by using terrible thermal design (that I challenge anyone to really, truly, say without laughing at themselves that they couldn't handle that 15g difference...). And that's a feat, b/c Ti has better thermal performance all other things equal....it seems that the reduction of internal surface area to further save weight maybe causing this issue, but of course, I have no doubt that Apple (and/or the fanboi crowd) will have endless advice on how "I'm using it wrong", it's "normal" behavior, or something (I know, I probably shouldn't take pictures with my iPhone and expect it to sync it with iCloud at room temperature...pretty unreasonable, and it is totally normal for just a photo sync to require a trip to the freezer to keep the device within normal operating temperatures).

Show me your serious (or not so serious) ways of helping your new, amazing Titanium iPhone Paperweight Edition keep its cool (just don't put it on paper when it's too hot, or it may become iPhone Lighter-in-more-than-just-weight Edition).

Damn you should have stayed with your perfectly fine 14pm .

 

[GuruZac]

I got the same message on my 15 Pro Max…and my 13 Pro prior to it while using Apple CarPlay and on my phone (car is in park-waiting to pick up my kids from school). I haven’t had any heating issues, no coating issues/discoloration, no cellular connection issues, no display issues. All in all, super happy with the 15 Pro Max.

 

[nathansz]

so what is the point of jamming these chips in to a pocket computer anyways?

they are under powering Macs to keep them "efficient" and over powering phones for what purpose exactly?

 

[DougFNJ]

Interesting video I saw on YouTube by iphonedo.

His issue with the 15 Pro was 100% instagram. Literally showed the temperature in normal operating condition until he loaded up the instagram app on his profile. Watched the temperature increase while doing nothing, and battery drain.

His suggestion was to turn off instagram and make sure it’s not running in the background.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

It’s boggling to see someone post and so many respond with ‘it’s fake, it’s not a flaw, it’s attention seeking, it’s first world problems’.

Just because only a small few may be having an issue does not mean the issue may not exist.

But immediate sensational headlining without even using a new device for even a week is pure attention seeking.

 

[Ethosik]

Take it to the Apple Store you probably have a faulty unit. Instead of trying to get internet points talk to Apple about it. Mine has been running quite cool so it can’t be a SOC thing.

 

[Ethosik]

Do you use an ad blocker? Ever since I installed wipr (been a couple years now) my phone has been ice cold on these forums. Before that the ad storm would cause my phone to cook. I’m on a 14 pro btw. And this has been the coldest phone I’ve ever used. Battery is awesome too after a year.

Exactly this and it will be different on different days as it depends on the ads. Since I subscribed here I don’t get ads and it’s been cool.

 

[Ethosik]

My iPhone got very warm last Saturday when sitting outside in direct sunlight watching a football game on YouTube TV over 5G.

That phone? iPhone 14 Pro.


Grow up. Stop trying to make everything into a controversy. When you put phones into their worst case scenarios, they got warm to the touch. Always have.

Yep agree! My 13 Pro got very hot with TikTok, almost hurt to touch but I have sensitive skin to heat. I don’t use TikTok anymore but my 13 Pro would get just as hot with a 5 minute FaceTime call.

 

[Shirasaki]

The first few hours after setup and transfer yes. Next day everything was fine, no heating up issues. Those that are unhappy are complaining louder than those that are happy and have nothing to complain about.

Because that’s where complain is for: unhappy for the outcome, speak up.

 

[teh_hunterer]

so what is the point of jamming these chips in to a pocket computer anyways?

they are under powering Macs to keep them "efficient" and over powering phones for what purpose exactly?

Who says they are under powering Macs and over powering phones? This is very likely a software/firmware bug.

 

[nathansz]

Who says they are under powering Macs and over powering phones? This is very likely a software/firmware bug.

It would be a bug only in the sense that they forgot to throttle the chip so it doesn’t overheat

 

[Mudodonbond]

Don’t have this issue. if anything it runs cooler than my 14 Pro max did. Even while charging.

 

[teh_hunterer]

It would be a bug only in the sense that they forgot to throttle the chip so it doesn’t overheat

You can get any current iPhone to heat up and dim the screen and display the same message the OP displayed with legitimate use, so it's not about that.

And can you then explain why seemingly a majority of users aren't experiencing the problem? If it's hardware based because of the SoC or cooling capacity or "forgetting to throttle" then why does the 15PM and 14PM heat up about the same in benchmarks like 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme? I physically can not make my 15PM get hotter than my 14PM no matter what I do.

I'm not some apologist, either. I believe people are experiencing an issue. I'll try anything anyone wants to suggest in order to try to replicate this as I have both phones side by side.

 

[Sami13496]

Apple: You are using it wrong.

 

[NotApplicable]

My 15PM hasn’t been noticeably warmer than room temp since I finished my restore last Friday

🤷‍♂️

 

[Shirasaki]

I think the reality is that it is 3nm, but they changed the internal frame and surface area internally so much that they couldn't move as much heat out as they have in previous designs, and they either did not core (more likely) or they didn't know (impossible, IMO, not at their scale, with the amount of testing that goes into these things).

They'll let this all blow over (sadly, it will, and we'll all just have to accept this as "normal"), and then next year, we'll get sold an "amazing" new design that "radically innovates on thermal management in ways that only Apple can engineer" and have really well produced, incredible videos during a Keynote describing this amazing new innovation that will let me use iPhone 16 Pro Max Ultra Uber Amazing Edition at room temperature than to its new Unobtanium (which is just going back to the old Aluminum) Frame and A18 Ultra SoC, available for Pre Order next week!

Watch, it'll happen. They did it with the keyboards on the MBP. They switched to some thin/horrible design for a few years, had a terrible warranty problem (even a class action?) over it, and then announced a "new amazing" keyboard design that, well, was just the old keyboard design with some small tweaks and called it the greatest thing ever.

Love Apple products for the most part. Hate how self-important they are, and, worse, how they are incapable of admitting they messed up on a design and use the reality distortion field to then somehow make it the user's problem and then parlay that into a "feature" in the next release rather than just make it right (read: redesign it, release a mid cycle update, and give me a free hardware swap when you fix it as well as a credit for iCloud for the year for my trouble). Nah, rather than actually fix what they screwed up, they'll suggest it's the user's problem and the fix is a feature you should be excited for, and worse, pay for.

Remember, you were holding it wrong, too (https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/)!

Full Apple experience every year after the release. Marketing to the tilt and spread as much false information as they can get away with, and exaggerate some. There is nothing new in this tactic and Apple will continue to do so because a huge crowd of Apple fanboys will defend their action every step of their way, for free.

I tried to hold those “titanium“ iPhone and compare with my iPhone XS Max. I can barely feel any difference. Not 15g. Not those magical “centred mass making phone feel lighter”. Absolutely none of that. Even if there is any, it’s so insignificant I’d argue barely worth mentioning. Yet people would rejoice.

But expecting a mid-cycle refresh for changing internal thermal design is just too much to ask. Engineers basically have to retest everything for this generation while they could Just design better next time. Scummy? Yes. But what can we do about it? Nothing, other than selling it for an upgrade next year. Sucks being a customer.

 

[DrFunkelstein]

I’ll add my experience to the “warmer “ camp. My 15 Pro is running noticeably hotter than my 14 Pro or any of my prior phones. It’s not hot enough to burn but it can get uncomfortable. It seems to happen even when doing random things that are not intense, like being in the settings app or browsing text-based websites. Rebooting the phone or making a cell or Teams call makes the temperature shoot up like crazy. I do wonder if some of the phones lost the “chip lottery” and ended up with lower-binned chips that are more prone to getting hot. Either that or some software issue that only affects some users.

 

[nathansz]

You can get any current iPhone to heat up and dim the screen and display the same message the OP displayed with legitimate use, so it's not about that.

What do you mean by current?

And how how could I make my phone do that?

And how does it make it not about that?

 

[teh_hunterer]

What do you mean by current?

iPhone 13/14/15 Pro/Max.

And how how could I make my phone do that?

Plenty of ways. Play something like Genshin Impact at max brightness while charging from 30% battery. Use the iPhone in direct sunlight for long enough. You can absolutely get any current iPhone (or iPad Pro) to dim its screen or pause charging from heating up through legitimate usage.

And how does it make it not about that?

You said "It would be a bug only in the sense that they forgot to throttle the chip so it doesn’t overheat". But it's not about them forgetting to throttle the chip because when you actually run heavy games or benchmarks on a 14PM and 15PM side by side neither seems to throttle differently or heat up differently. So how could it be about that?

You are assuming this is a hardware issue with the design of the chassis or the SoC, but there is no evidence of that whatsoever.

 

[Ethosik]

Who says they are under powering Macs and over powering phones? This is very likely a software/firmware bug.

The fact that essentially the top of the line Mac Pro is using 2x mobile processors is a problem. I have enjoyed Apple Silicon Macs now and like them far more than Intel ones, I have 5 of them right now. But they REALLY need to make true desktop SOC to compete with the PC space.

 

[teh_hunterer]

The fact that essentially the top of the line Mac Pro is using 2x mobile processors is a problem. I have enjoyed Apple Silicon Macs now and like them far more than Intel ones, I have 5 of them right now. But they REALLY need to make true desktop SOC to compete with the PC space.

That's fair enough but doesn't have much to do with the claim Apple is over powering phones.

 

[Ethosik]

That's fair enough but doesn't have much to do with the claim Apple is over powering phones.

The fact it can run a PS5/PS4 somewhere in between those two console games with RE4 and others in a finless design. That is over powering it. In terms of raw power Apple has been ahead of Android for years now.

And the heat issue shows this. If they didn't try to over power their phones with ray tracing and more GPU we wouldn't have more heat to deal with.

 

[nathansz]

iPhone 13/14/15 Pro/Max.



Plenty of ways. Play something like Genshin Impact at max brightness while charging from 30% battery. Use the iPhone in direct sunlight for long enough. You can absolutely get any current iPhone (or iPad Pro) to dim its screen or pause charging from heating up through legitimate usage.



You said "It would be a bug only in the sense that they forgot to throttle the chip so it doesn’t overheat". But it's not about them forgetting to throttle the chip because when you actually run heavy games or benchmarks on a 14PM and 15PM side by side neither seems to throttle differently or heat up differently. So how could it be about that?

You are assuming this is a hardware issue with the design of the chassis or the SoC, but there is no evidence of that whatsoever.

I suppose my 12 mini doesn't count as a current phone then

I guess my point, that I didn't elucidate well, is that I just don't get the point of putting a chip in a phone that could overheat itself in the first place

I don't know what genshin impact is but playing a demanding game on a computer the size of a phone at max brightness while charging it doesn't seem like "plenty of ways" to use a phone


I think I'm confused about the whole point. you seem to be saying that they all act the same, so it must be a software issue, but aren't they all running the same software?

 

[NEPOBABY]

You Apple fanboys are something else. Any time a number of people gather together on social media to talk about legitimate issues they're facing, you call it "traffic-driving clickbait". Or you blame users for using their phone wrong. Or claim that they're attention seeking.

Y'all are gaslighting people's legitimate issues. It's disgusting. The way you blame people reminds me of the garbage-level humanity found on 4chan.

That's quite an insane rant for someone who fell for influencer clickbait and 'heatgate' theory.

 

[Ethosik]

I suppose my 12 mini doesn't count as a current phone then

I guess my point, that I didn't elucidate well, is that I just don't get the point of putting a chip in a phone that could overheat itself in the first place

I don't know what genshin impact is but playing a demanding game on a computer the size of a phone at max brightness while charging it doesn't seem like "plenty of ways" to use a phone


I think I'm confused about the whole point. you seem to be saying that they all act the same, so it must be a software issue, but aren't they all running the same software?

The chip itself will not overheat easily. That is the whole issue with social media and over exaggeration to get clicks. Overheating would mean the phone shuts off due to how hot it gets. I have had my iPhone 13 Pro VERY VERY hot almost untouchable for me (I am sensitive to heat) so this is not a new thing. But TO ME, I would say my old iPhone 13 Pro would overheat. Yet I didn't start a social media frenzy with my nonsense.