this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Apple may reduce the performance of the 3nm A17 Pro processor due to massive overheating of the iPhone 15 Pro::The problem of overheating of iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max smartphones is becoming widespread. It is possible that Apple will be forced to take the unpopular step of reducing the performance of the latest 3nm A17 Pro chip.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 year ago (9 children)

How does something like this not show up in tests?

[–] [email protected] 101 points 1 year ago (1 children)

During tests they were holding it wrong.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It does.

Usually engineering and R&D sees these things, but they are too scared to contradict ambitious timelines set up by management.

[–] DoomBot5 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or they report it to their managers, and those managers are too afraid to report it up the chain to contradict an ambitious timeline.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Or they do report it up the chain but upper management doesn't care and gamble that users won't notice or encounter the issue.

[–] cheese_greater 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Or marketing. I've heard innuendo that at Apple, marketing has vetoes

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[–] yoo 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They just figured oh well it works well in Cupertino. They omitted the fact that Cupertino doesn’t get super hot, ever.

[–] dth 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

oof i can’t imagine using it in my country where it’s 30 degrees celcius and above on average everyday.

[–] ilmagico 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

oof i can’t imagine using it in ~~my country~~Apple's home state, California where it’s ~~30~~ 40+ degrees celcius and above on average ~~everyday~~ in summer, and Death Valley has pretty much the world record.

I mean if they didn't test it in Cali I wouldn't know where at all...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

California is a big state with lots of different climates. The bay area doesn't typically get that hot.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I haven’t noticed a heating issue and I live in a very hot climate. So, it’s not universal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Same here, no issues so far.

[–] iMike 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My 15 pro max is cold all the time, I haven’t played any 3d games yet though. It was cold during restore process and it’s cold when charging

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

People have used it in very hot areas and it has been fine, with no overheating issues.

People have used it in very temperate areas and it has turned into a small furnace.

The controlling variable is almost certainly not ambient temperature.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can assure you it did, they just hoped no one would notice

[–] stonedemoman 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I could see a case made for the test units having much better heat transfer and once mass produced the silicon lottery inevitably made some chips run hotter. But those variances are not massive, so it would've already had to run pretty hot. IDK

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When developing a product you order "process corner" chips that are primarily used for testing the memory timings (through a process called Shmoo) to make sure it is stable. The "FF" class of these chips are also useful for testing thermals as they draw the maximum power you will see with the silicon lottery. So assuming Apple did this properly they should have had a good idea of what the product temperature is at the operating temperature extremes.

[–] stonedemoman 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting, so SOP would rule that out too. I didn't know this.

[–] Haha 10 points 1 year ago

Seems they don’t test

[–] systemglitch 8 points 1 year ago

Oh they knew. Apple is just pure scum.

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Now the 20% performance increase from last years becomes 10 and you have basically the same phone as last year. Good job to ensure people preorder.

[–] Telodzrum 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But it uses the same connector as every other device I own, which is the biggest selling point of this year’s model. The performance gains are completely wasted because the 14 was already faster than needed for any usecase.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I honestly have no idea why iPhone users put up with those cables for so long.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because they had to if they wanted to stick with the iPhone.

Really though, fuck Apple. This change wouldn't have happened without the EU forcing their hand.

I do find it strange though. For the first time since the 4S I am actually interested in the iPhone and going to USB-C is a big factor in that interest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Lightning was the biggest reason I switched to maining an Android, altho I'm v happy now that I've switched

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Why put the pressure on even selling it as a new product. Should’ve just pulled a 14s. Exact same but with usbc and made bank for another year.

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[–] SulaymanF 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mere speculation with no sources. Or Apple could do nothing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I'm not an Apple fan by any by any means, but what a junk article! "Apple may reduce the clock speed of the processor"? C'mon! They do plenty of shitty things to dislike them for already. We don't need to reach for hypotheticals...

I think it speaks volumes for how stagnant phone innovation has become when their marketing campaign is centered on the metal the frame is made out of.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the problem can only be solved by artificially limiting the performance of the A17 Pro chip. However, this is unlikely to have a positive impact on sales of new smartphones. Alternatively, Apple can ignore the problem, but that won't make the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max more popular either.

This whole article is based on just one persons opinion.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

this is also a guy who knows a lot about, and has been following Apple news for a long time.

[–] HollandJim 19 points 1 year ago

He’s also been wrong a lot and we don’t need to constantly consume everything he says as fact.

[–] DietBajaBlast 3 points 1 year ago

The company further told Forbes that the fix, which should come with iOS 17.1, won’t result in throttled performance, which some, like Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, have said was a possibility.

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[–] obinice 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

At what point do we add active cooling to phones?

I don't mean that as a joke, there are some really interesting systems being developed (which are functional) that are extremely tiny that can move air with no moving parts, they're being developed for exactly this sort of use in electronics.

So, no need for a fan that wears down, creates noise, etc.

The biggest issue would be keeping the air channel free of dust and debris, if they can figure that out, then adding a few millimetres of thickness and a small weight increase in order to accommodate future higher capability processors seems entirely acceptable.

Come to think of it, who's to say the air needs to come from outside the phone? You could have a closed system, with air channels moving throughout the phone's metal chassis, acting a little like a heat pump, to better distribute the heat generated in one spot across the entire phone surface area for dissipation.

Phones already use their chassis for cooling, this would just significantly increase the efficiency with no exterior changes. Hmm....

[–] Acters 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

https://www.froresystems.com/

This sounds promising. Dustproof. I dont think waterproofing the air channel will be necessary. This can be used as a way to create a channel for air to pass through without compromising the waterproof seal for the phone internals. The air channel can be a pass through and offers a big benefit in cooling. If there is blockage or damaged fins(I think they are vibrating fins.), then the phone will get warm and automatically throttle. A repair will not be needed unless you want the full performance. I live in the hot desert, and active cooling would be a dream come true. Every high-end phone gets hot to the touch from using GPS or streaming outside.

Edit: Another note is that most people don't beat up their phones with high-pressure water(dirty or clean). If that was the case, then the phones water seal would suffer or be compromised as they are water resistant to low pressure and may not seal against high pressure.

Thin and flat too!

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[–] DietBajaBlast 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry to ruin your circle jerk - The company further told Forbes that the fix, which should come with iOS 17.1, won’t result in throttled performance, which some, like Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, have said was a possibility.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Bizarrely I’ve had zero issues with overheating on the 15 Pro Max, even when playing games while charging or during initial installation. Does anyone know other scenarios in which it overheats?

[–] mriguy 9 points 1 year ago

Same here. My 15 pro max never gets noticeably warmer than my 14 pro did, even during the initial setup, where it’s doing lots of things. It seems more likely that this is a manufacturing problem that only affects some phones, because people are reporting super hot phones, most of the time, which nobody I know has seen. The phone itself is generating the heat - the climate difference doesn’t sound like the cause.

[–] dth 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i guess when you live in a tropical country? like by default the weather is super hot so naturally phones tend to overheat easily too.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s not ambient temperature. Tons of people have had no problems using it in in places like Arizona or Florida. Other people have had it turn into a small furnace in much cooler areas / indoors. There’s something else going on.

[–] outplayed 3 points 1 year ago

Apparently it can heat up randomly while doing something not intensive like listening to music or even sitting in your pocket, according to two people from the WVFRM podcast

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[–] Zummy 3 points 1 year ago

Did anyone stop to think that maybe the reason you are hearing about so many people experiencing overheating on the iPhone, is because the far larger group of people that aren’t experiencing overheating have no reason to post?

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