Opinion: What is going on with iPhone 15 Pro overheating issues?

[Redaktion]

Since the iPhone 15 Pro rolled out to customers last week, reports quickly started to emerge that were overheating. Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has pointed the finger at the iPhone's internal design, but not all iPhone 15 Pro users are reporting the problem. What gives?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Opinion-What-is-going-on-with-iPhone-15-Pro-overheating-issues.756044.0.html

[flame mee]

It's okay. As long as it gets that topnotch Geekbench score. Geekbench is everything! It's what everybody runs all day long!

[Steve L]

You can essentially get any result you want from the "3D Mark Wild Extreme Stress Test" benchmarking utility.

On the same iPhone 15 Pro Max, for example, I collected the following three very different results:

Simply running the test with my phone as I found it (on battery):
- Best loop score: 3590
- Lowest loop score: 2255
- Stability: 62.8%

Immediately after rebooting and in airplane mode (on battery):
- Best loop score: 3554
- Lowest loop score: 2768
- Stability: 77.9%

Continuing in airplane mode and not rebooting (while charging):
- Best loop score: 4114
- Lowest loop score: 2423
- Stability: 59.9%

Note that I would recommend against making any assumptions from the above.  Much greater rigor would need to be employed to have accurate results worth using.
 
To really be able to compare results from the iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro Max, you would need to make every effort to reduce as much as possible any variability in conditions between the tests on each device.

Personally, my opinion of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is that it is the very best iPhone to-date based on the performance, temperatures, construction, materials, and form factor.

[Sanjiv]

Thanks for your comment. Both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 13 Pro Max were tested at the same time under identical conditions after a reboot and no other apps running.

[Sanjiv]

I would also just add one other point for clarity — I'm not really focusing on the benchmark scores achieved under the benchmark here, but the "Performance range" graph that shows the sustained performance of each chip under load. In this case, it is to compare how the A17 Pro 3 nm node performs against the 5 nm node, rather than their outright performance as judged by the scores.

[Neenyah]

I don't get it, why is everyone so focused on thermal throttling under heavy sustained load (benchmarks)? Literally every single mobile device, including laptops, performs like that when you push them hard for long periods of time - they throttle to cool down.

Is the phone throttling in normal everyday use? I have no clue but according to all reviews I watched it doesn't and they say how it feels noticeably faster than any iPhone yet (while mentioning that such thing can be also attributed to the phone being completely new with no unnecessary apps installed). So what really is the issue there, lol?

[Sanjiv]

The issue is not thermal throttling under load - the issue is that some iPhone 15 Pro units are seriously overheating under load and in other situations including making a simple phone call or just charging the device. In some instances the phone becomes too hot to hold unless a case is on, and even then it can be very uncomfortable.

[Neenyah]

Ah ok then, that's a different story in that case, thanks for the info Sanjiv 🙏

[Steve L]

Thanks for your comment. Both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 13 Pro Max were tested at the same time under identical conditions after a reboot and no other apps running.

Please share precisely your testing methodology to achieve identical conditions.

Also, please provide factual detail on the over heating issues.  For example, I would like to know more details behind the phone call that over heated a device as well as the device that was so hot it was uncomfortable to hold with a case.

[David_sp]

The differences between the iPhone 14 and 15 are minimal, the problem of overheating and charging the phone is not nonsense, this could shorten the useful life of the phone and no one wants that. We still don't know if it is a specific series, but Apple has to solve it. There are many complaints in the US and they will most likely soon arrive from other countries in Europe and Asia.
I am clear that with these problems I would not buy this phone and would wait for a couple of months to pass to analyze what happened.