The A17 Pro chip could be tamed, but not without a loss in performance. Apple tried a little too hard to make its smartphone lighter.
Unboxing of iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro // Source: MKBHD
We, like all tech editors on the planet, are currently testing the new iPhone 15. The time inevitably comes for benchmarks, those applications that push smartphones to their limits to test their performance. And to be clear: the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max heat up a lot.
Some, like Android Authority, measured a temperature of 47.4°C in a test that put the GPU to the test. In the same test, a Galaxy S23 Ultra and a Pixel 7 Pro reached 44.7 °C and 41 °C, respectively.
A start to an explanation, but not on the chip side
When a smartphone overheats, we usually look at its chip, which is logical. Current examples of poorly optimized chips are numerous, we think for example of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which rendered certain smartphones unusable and forced a reboot, or the Exynos 2200 of the Galaxy S22. However, according to analyst Ming Chi Kuo, if the chip bears some of the responsibility, we will have to look elsewhere. “My investigation shows that the iPhone 15 Pro series overheating issues are not related to TSMC’s advanced 3nm node,” he wrote.
The real culprit would be the iPhone 15 Pro’s cooling system. “The root cause is more likely the compromises made in the design of the thermal system to achieve lower weight, such as: Such as reducing the heat dissipation area and using a titanium frame, which has a negative impact on thermal efficiency. »
Therefore, a software update couldn’t catch up with everything. “Improvements may be limited unless Apple reduces processor performance.” If Apple does not properly address this issue, it could negatively impact shipments throughout the lifecycle of the iPhone 15 Pro,” the analyst concludes. After the battery gate, the bending gate and the antenna gate, are we facing a heat gate? Not necessarily, because Apple’s smartphone continues to work perfectly. However, if this issue ends up affecting battery life, there’s a good chance it’s causing a lot of noise.
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