The iPhone 15 Pro is a hot commodity, but is it too hot? Some of the earliest iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max users say that their phone overheats while using apps or charging. These reports are completely anecdotal, of course, but they're common enough to be worth your attention.
Reports of overheating cropped up shortly after the iPhone 15 Pro's launch. Many of these reports come from random Twitter and Reddit users, though the Wall Street Journal spoke one-on-one with customers who have experienced the issue. One customer contacted Apple and was told that excessive heat may occur during the iPhone setup process—days later, the customer says that his iPhone 15 Pro Max is still too hot. Some professionals in the tech industry have also run into this problem.
Still, we don't have concrete evidence to prove that this is a problem. And we can't verify the anecdotal experience of other people. It's also hard to pin down anything that might be responsible for overheating. Ming Chi-Quo, a respected Apple analyst, says that the iPhone 15 Pro's titanium frame is the problem. Titanium is a fantastic insulator, so this isn't a bad theory, but the iPhone 15 Pro's titanium frame is only 1mm thick. And the phone's internal frame, which is now made of aluminum instead of stainless steel, should (theoretically) draw more heat away from the phone's internal components.
The writers here at How-To Geek regularly test new phones, and in our experience, it's not uncommon for a phone to get alarmingly hot during setup. The iOS and Android operating systems have a very intense setup process that can take several hours or even a full day. The length of your setup process largely depends on the amount of data (apps, contacts, etc) associated with your previous device. Using or charging the phone during setup will force it to produce more heat, which may explain why some customers are met with an overheating notification while charging or playing games.
We reviewed the iPhone 15 Pro and didn't run into overheating or other defects. Other publications, including CNET, Ars Technica, and Mashable, do not mention overheating in their reviews of this phone. If overheating is truly a problem, it doesn't appear to be very widespread. Maybe it's the result of some defect, or it may be the result of specific user behavior.
We'll continue keeping an eye on this situation, and we'll update this post with any new information we come across.
Source: Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal via MacRumors