“It heats up after just a 2-minute FaceTime call or when scrolling through reels for 8-10 minutes,” wrote tech content creator Mohit Verma on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. “This is a new issue for me, as I’ve never encountered this with any previous phone.”
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company notes in a support page that it is common for devices to feel warmer than usual when they are being set up for the first time.
In our experience, this is especially true if you’re restoring a new iPhone from a backup, rather than setting it up as a completely new device. (Lousier-than-usual battery life is also common during this time, as lots of setup processes are occurring in the background.) And because the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max were released so recently, this phenomenon could account for some of the cases being reported.
But other users, especially those more inclined to push these new devices’ performance, aren’t convinced this is the cause.
Robert Triggs, a senior editor for the smartphone enthusiast website Android Authority, wrote that the iPhone 15 Pro only ran marginally hotter than rival devices developed by Samsung and Google when performing mundane tasks like streaming YouTube. But when he measured the temperature of all three phones while recording 4K video and performing tests meant to approximate long-stretches of graphically intense gaming, his results showed the iPhone ran the hottest by far.
That suggests that Apple’s new A17 Pro chipset may be partially to blame and could explain why reports of overheating iPhone 15s — which use the older A16 Bionic chipset introduced last year — are generally harder to come by.
Apple’s updated look and feel for the iPhone 15 Pro devices may play a role here, too. Ming-Chi Kuo, a TF International Securities analyst, who examines Apple’s supply chain, said the company’s use of titanium and an internal redesign meant to trim weight are more likely culprits.
If you’ve already purchased an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, and you’ve noticed it overheating during use, there are a few things to try that could help bring temperatures under control.
- Turn on low power mode. This disables features like the iPhone 15 Pro’s super smooth “ProMotion” screen, and reduces the performance of the iPhone’s CPU and GPU. That could help prevent the phone from getting uncomfortably warm but it also means some of the features you may have bought a Pro iPhone for in the first place are temporarily disabled.
- Disable background activity for some apps. In the Settings app, tap “General,” then “Background App Refresh” — there, you’ll see which apps have permission to work even when you aren’t directly looking at it. Be sure to turn off ones you know you won’t need and consider turning off background activity for apps like Notes and Instagram at least temporarily. (Some people conducting their own testing suspect these apps in particular may be part of the problem.)
But if these issues are as widespread as they seem, it’s not on you to figure out how to make your $1,000 smartphone function better — it’s up to Apple. The company’s plans aren’t yet clear, but Kuo suggests that software updates to try to address the issue may be coming. The catch? The effectiveness of those updates may be minor unless Apple is willing to make its processors run slower.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
