Complaints from numerous Apple customers have arisen, indicating that the latest iPhone models are experiencing overheating issues shortly after their release, despite being equipped with cutting-edge chips.
Purchasers of the iPhone 15 Pro and its larger Pro Max variant have taken to various online platforms, including Apple’s customer support pages, Reddit, and social media, to express concerns about their devices becoming excessively hot to the touch, as reported by the Financial Times.
On Apple’s community forum alone, more than 2,000 individuals have reported encountering overheating problems. One comment read, “I just received the iPhone 15 Pro today, and it’s so hot I can’t hold it for long!” Another user mentioned, “While listening to Spotify and using iMessage, it becomes uncomfortably hot to hold without a case.” Another post expressed, “Even with a case, it’s quite warm. This is concerning as I’ve owned every iPhone since the 6 and have never encountered such an issue before.”
Although some iPhone 15 owners did not experience this issue, others attributed it to factors such as the use of subpar charging cables, prolonged usage of video or gaming applications, or a temporary surge in processing during the initial setup of the device.
Apple’s customer support pages acknowledge that iPhones may become warm when initially setting up the device, wirelessly charging, or running graphics-intensive or processor-intensive apps, as reported by the Financial Times.
The iPhone 15 Pro is the first mass-market consumer device to utilize the new 3nm chip technology from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a major chip supplier to Apple and other Silicon Valley companies like Nvidia.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities renowned for insights into Apple’s supply chain, noted that overheating problems were likely “unrelated to TSMC’s advanced 3nm node.” He speculated that the primary cause might be compromises made in the thermal system design to reduce weight, such as a smaller heat dissipation area and the use of a titanium frame, which could negatively affect thermal efficiency.