The iPhone 15 Might Literally Be Too Hot to Handle

Just a few days after release, many iPhone 15 users are reporting overheating issues with their new smartphones when charging, migrating from older models or even during less taxing activities, like browsing social media, according to 9to5Mac.

It's not uncommon for smartphones to get warm to the touch during certain activities. When using a 20W USB-C charger, a dead iPhone 15 can be fully recharged in under two hours, but pushing all that power into its rechargeable battery will cause it, and the rest of the smartphone, to warm up. The device's CPU and GPU will also get warm during demanding tasks like 3D gaming, or even when migrating data between devices during an upgrade, as gigabytes of data is wirelessly downloaded.

An iPhone that gets a little warm isn't a reason to run to the Geniuses at the Apple Store, but many iPhone 15 models are getting so hot that users aren't able to handle them without a case. On X, 9to5Mac's Ian Zelbo complained that their "iPhone 15 Pro Max is almost too hot to touch while fast charging rn," and reported that the left side of the smartphone was where it had gotten especially hot to the touch during the early part of a long charge.

A South Korean YouTuber, BullsLab, went as far as to point a thermal camera at an iPhone 15 Plus and an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which can measure the surface temperature of each device by the infrared light they emit. During iPhone 15 performance benchmarks, both models surpassed 46 degrees Celsius, or 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

As Android Authority reports, while widespread reports of overheating shared to social media sites like X seem to indicate the issue affects all of the iPhone 15 models, the iPhone 15 Pro Max seems to pop up in complaints more frequently. That could be due to the fact that it has the largest battery of all four models, or, as 9to5Mac points out, it could be because that was the model that most early adopters selected, and so it was the first to end up in users' hands.