Are iPhones burning up in the infernos of processor overtaxation, or is it all a big misunderstanding?
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 6th 2009 11:11AM
posted Jul 6th 2009 11:11AM
- Somebody's white iPhone 3GS grew some ugly brown markings during heavy use.
- A new development is saying that the discoloration came from a case (pictured), not from cooking the plastic.
- More users than usual have been reporting an overheated iPhone error after the 3.0 update, but as Apple's support documentation points out, this could just be from the time of year (summer, in case you haven't been outside lately).
- There isn't a large mass of evidence denoting a major fault to the 3GS, 3.0 or chintzy white leather cases.
Apple usually ignores problems at first but then does a fairly good job of remedying them. I hope that's the case here.
Agreed... 3.1 will probably solve these "heat issues" that Apple will again reaffirm don't really exist... and then I'll go buy upgrade my 3G assuming they're back in stock.
I have a remedy... nice 4" copper heatsink and the fan!
I think that's unlikely, considering the "problem" appears to be one person who used a case on the iPhone and the case caused the discoloring. Doesn't seem like that has much to do with Apple at all.
For comparison, I live in a pretty hot climate and I use my 3GS outside all the time. It usually gets to 105-110 degrees every day this time of year. My iPhone has no problems with overheating at all. So what is Apple supposed to fix? The weather? Or the one 3rd party case that caused discoloration?
There's a picture of 16G and a picture of 32G models with discoloration. Unless the same person bought 2 phones, which is unlikely, there's at least 2 people with coloring problems.
And are they both using the same case? Because now multiple sources are saying the discoloration is related specifically to that one case, and the discoloration can even be removed because it's not the iPhone causing it, nor is the iPhone itself getting discolored - the case material is coming off.
Furthermore, 2 instances out of well over a million 3GS's sold is hardly an epidemic or even a problem at all.
@ Zak
"For comparison, I live in a pretty hot climate and I use my 3GS outside all the time. It usually gets to 105-110 degrees every day"
I figured hell would be a lot hotter.
yeh these new iphones suck.
Mines fine, I'm wondering what all the hipe is about. I like my iphone!!
and yes I use is a lot...
Same here. Mine is on 7+ hours a day at my desk on a dock. It stays cooler then my 2G felt.
I downgraded to the 16GB white but had the 32GB originally. I accidentally left the screen on when it was plugged into my cars head unit. It was also in the iPod sock I use. I put it in a tray in my dash. The windows were down. This sat for an hour or so, maybe longer. It was honestly too hot too touch when I first grabbed it. I am not kidding! But I turned the screen off and it cooled quickly and there was no damage to the phone. No discoloration at all.
It has not gotten hot at all in comparrison to my 2G. I keep it in an iPod sock at all time except for when using it for obvious reasons.
Problems people are having could be any number of reasons. It cannot be just one. As long as Apple take care of its customers ASAP, all is well.
I don't have an Iphone, Engadget send me one and I'll rigorously test it so we can settle this
You shouldn't get an overheated iPhone error just because it's summer, thats ridiculous.
what's ridiculous is a few dozen loud-mouthed people ranting and raving online about their "problematic" iphones. An error rate of a few dozen out of a several million is not newsworthy. If the Pre ever sells a few million devices, we'll see some higher instances of reported problems, above and beyond what's arleady been reported.
Agreed!!
"what's ridiculous is a few dozen loud-mouthed people ranting and raving online about their "problematic" iphones. "
Yeah, they ought to keep their mouths shut and be happy Apple allowed them to buy their products.
Look Around You -
You're such a unbelievable tool. Complaining about your iPhone isn't the problem - pretending it's an epidemic is.
@greg
You don't know how many, and are bashing the folks who have reported issues for having the never to speak up. then you go onto bash the Pre for its issues. apparently you have no issue with Engadget talking about that.
What? You don't want to know if this is a widespread issue, and therefore have Apple fix it, maybe protecting your phone from a similar fate?
Or do you just want everyone to cover for Apple so they dont get some bad PR?
Yeah - it's not a problem unless a fanboi suffers. Who cares about anyone else...
That's great, because I don't! And I have a 3Gs!
Apple isn't saying you will get an overheated phone just because it's summer. Apple is saying if you see the overheating screen, it's probably because you left the phone in a hot location. They don't even address backs discoloring.
You're getting the "if" confused with the "then". It's not "if it's summer, your phone will overheat". It's not "if you use a case your phone will overheat". It's "if your phone overheats...", see, how the if clause is a much less common case?
If your 3Gs isn't overheating (and I don't know anyone whose is), you can ignore all this stuff.
Totally agreed - I suspect the "this could just be from the time of year (summer, in case you haven't been outside lately)" line was probably added to get people's backs up. However, no device should cease to function as expected due to the time of the year as long as you use it in normal conditions (i.e. don't expect your battery life to be great if you take it on an arctic expedition). Certainly my current ancient Nokia doesn't stop working because it is hot outside and I damned sure do not expect a EUR 675 device to either. Progress surely means that these devices get more reliable, not worse.
@Greg
Not every person that owns an iphone posts on internets blogs. It's safe to assume the "few dozen" people reporting problems are not the only ones. There could be several hundred or even thousands.
Apple sold a million in a week. Several hundred would still not be a big deal, especially if many of them are due to user error/misunderstanding.
I selected "grief in comments"
Stupid chinese cheapo $5 cigarette lighter -> USB adapter seems to have fried my 1st gen last week, so it keeps complaining about "the accessory connected is not compatible with iPhone" even when its not plugged into anything.
By sheer dumb luck I have a 3GS showing up this week.. it'll be nice to have keyclicks and text message alerts again.
A co-worker of mine got his 3GS this past weekend and the guy at ATT suggested to get the black one since the white one has problems with turning different colors on it's own, OR when people leave it in the sun. Hahahaha.
Well I guess it's good he is somewhat telling the truth and it is being recognised.
ugh, what a bunch of morons at AT&T stores. I bought my 3g at an AT&T store and will never go back there again for any further iPhone purchases Apple stores are a thousand times better.
Yeah, how dare they attempt to help customers get the most life out of a product that they're going to own for at least two years!
Everybody should just go to the Apple store, where employees KNOW that they're better than you!
CJ is just miffed that Microsoft hasn't opened *its* retail stores yet so he can't get in touch with his true fanboy...
Hate Different.
Aw come on, CJ - at least complain about something real ;) This stuff about all Apple Store employees being snooty is for the birds. The folks at the Apple Store in Willowbend Mall, Plano TX (suburb of Dallas) have been pleasant and helpful without fail. From regular sales staff to the people at the Genius Bar, I've literally never had a bad experience there.
Well done, AT&T. So, what we have here, unless the AT&T employee has access to data that the Internet doesn't, is someone disseminating unsubstantiated information as fact. Mind you, if they had personally witnessed this problem then I don't have an issue with them.
Every time I hear or read the words "Genius Bar" I throw up a little in my mouth.
There, I just did it again.
Blaming the weather is completely out of order. Every other manufacturer isn't having a problem, it's just a sloppy excuse from a company who thinks their customers will actually believe it.
If you can't build a device that can withstand summer temperatures, you should be blaming yourselves.
And yet my 3GS is just fine in the 110 temps I see here every day, so where do you think the problem really lies? Maybe it's exactly where it was suggested, with a 3rd party case that discolors the iPhone. Did that not occur to you?
Hey Zak, did it ever occur to you that some people might actually have a problem with an Apple product? It happens, you know. Sometimes products are just defective, for whatever reason.
If Apple doesn't specifically state in their fine print (believe it or not, they have it too!) that putting an aftermarket case on your phone voids the warranty, then they need to look into this before it becomes a real problem. Putting the onus on the user and the weather is not an acceptable stance.
Oh I'm sorry Greggo, I forgot. You like imaginary holocausts when it comes to Apple. Considering that I can count the number of iPhones this has affected with the fingers on one hand, I don't think your argument has any merit.
So what's going to become a real problem again? The third party case material coming off on the iPhone so it looks like it's discolored? Tell you what, since you seem to be Google-impaired, here's a link for you:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.frenchiphone.com/2009/07/02/nouveau-cas-de-surchauffe-pour-liphone-3gs
You can clean the discoloration off with rubbing alcohol. You know why? Because it's not the iPhone that's doing it. Now take your little Apple hate parade and go think about what you've done.
I still can't afford a 1st gen 8GB :D. They go for over £150 on ebay
All these fanboys are just going to vote their iphones are overheating when they don't even own one.
Apple should only sell the black one, then make a statement saying they fixed the overheating issues. Everyone will be happy
Only fools buy the 3GS.
Only ignorant pricks like you post such uneducated comments.
@Alex
Word
I don't know, guys... I think he may have a point.
So what else is new? First slam Apple, next get the eyeballs and page views, then do the mea culpa.......
Rinse. Repeat.
i have that chintzy white case and have no brown marks at all... plus the inside of that case is white... it wouldnt stain brown
do you have a job or friends or do you just spend your entire day scanning engadget for apple posts trying to stir up a pointless arguement online?
I totally agree with you. My 3GS getting warm under heavy use too but it's still far from melting the backcover. I don't see a construction/design/whatever problem here
Here's a poll:
Is Paul a. Chapel a....
A. Troll
B. Apple fanboy
C. All of the above
I did a full restore and "set up as a new phone" and it completely solved my battery drain and overheating problem. I had initially set up my 3Gs using a backup file from my old iPhone, and this appears to have been the problem for me. I'm now getting very good battery life with push, location services etc. turned on.
A problem caused by cases, blown out of proportion by anti-Apple zealot blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo to get more hits from their fanboy readers. Get a real job idiots.
LOL @ "anti-Apple zealot blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo"
...do you even READ their articles?
"...blown out of proportion by anti-Apple zealot blogs like Engadget..."
Wait, Engadget is anti-Apple? When did this come about?
I think the same could be said in reverse context, where there are anti-Apple zealots, there are Apple zealots who will come out and defend their glorious company (read: god) at any cost, even if it means acting just as the "anti-Apple zealots" do. You fail at life
/troll off
Engadget certainly isn't anti-Apple (as best as we can tell, most of them are using a Mac of some description). Rather, they know what pushes people's buttons and what gets page hits which, after all, is what generates their income with advertisers. Frankly, the whole business model of news sites these days on the Internet is geared towards sensationalism, which is what you get when you don't "pay" for the service. Mind you, occasionally Engadget will produce a good article.
@mystic
I just reported you for the dumbest comment made thus far.
Saying Engadget is anti-Apple is like saying the Pope is Jewish.
I will say the details are spotty at best..... RROD was big news and I have no doubt that if this was happening so much thered be headlines......
I took my black 3G S on a 6.5 hour trip the day I got it. I had the car power plugged in most of the time while I was running the Maps app with the GPS function following me. About 4 hours into the trip I noticed it was getting pretty warm. I let it cool off for a while and using it sporadically.
@dudebro
He is running cover for Apple, just like many will on this post.
After never failing to jump on any company whose products experience faults in order to promote Apple as the "superior" choice to shoddy products, now they are going full-steam in trying to talk this away as no big deal and a big conspiracy to hurt Apple's feelings.
Heck even Engadget is acting sorry that they are even talking about this.
dont worry people.
your white phone will turn white again when winter comes! relax. this is an undisclosed feature. i dont know why you are complaining.
Hmm... I've had 2 as well(well, first one was actually roommate's but live with him for 2 1/2 years), and no problems here. Have 2 friends that have 360's as well with no problems.
Has anyone actually done any before-and-after usage tests on 3.0 using the same piece of hardware (a 3G or a original?) I switched from a 2 year old iPhone (although I'm not a super-heavy user, the device saw at least an hour of surfing and 2 hours of music playback a day, plus a small-ish but not tiny amount of talk time, so the battery probably wasn't in great shape) to the 3GS, and I've noticed substantially worse battery usage -- which, again, seems odd to me since the 3GS should have better battery life for everything except talk.
Doing a 2.21-vs-3.0 battery drain on (preferably, a few) iPhones should give us a good idea if the battery issues are imagined or update related.
Several of my friends went from 3G to 3Gs and didn't change their usage and say they experience better battery life. It's useless additional battery life because it's just they have more battery life left at the end of the day, but not enough for a 2nd day. But they still experience better battery life.
No idea what would of happened if they just went from 2.2.1 on a 3G to 3.0 on a 3G, I haven't asked any of my friends who did that what happened.
How do you think would the new iPhone keep cool? It has 600MHz of CPU and a new and more powerful graphics card. These would need a heat sink to cool off right? The iPhone 3G already would heat up on charging alone, let aside straining it. The 3GS has more power means it needs more cooling space. New smartphones have metal casing which acts as a heat sink and dissipates the heat quickly.
I wonder what would happen if iPhone's OSX allowed multi-tasking...it would simply burn-up the phone.
@John Doe: "How do you think would the new iPhone keep cool? It has 600MHz of CPU and a new and more powerful graphics card. These would need a heat sink to cool off right? The iPhone 3G already would heat up on charging alone, let aside straining it. The 3GS has more power means it needs more cooling space."
Christ, so much misinformation, so few words.
"These would need a heat sink to cool off right?". No. Wrong. Whether you need a heat sink depends on the power output. You presume the power output goes up on the new iPhone. You only need a heatsink when you get to around 8W of power or higher. The CPU in the iPhone will be more like 0.5 to 1.0W
While the 3GS "has" more power, it does not use more energy. In fact, all the figures show that the battery life has gone up which means that power usage has gone DOWN.
Ever heard of a process shrink? It's where you make each transistor smaller so, even if you add transistors and increase the clock speed, you don't need to increase the power consumption. iPhone 3G = 90nm. 3GS = 65nm
Charging a battery has absolutely nothing to do with the processor speed and is always a little inefficient so heats up.
@John Doe
Were you employed by Intel in the early 2000's, by any chance?
I'm going to call BS. The Palm Pre has the same basic hardware running at the same frequencies and there have been no complaints. The Pre is also pretty small, so it's not going to dissipate heat any better than the iPhone 3GS.
the OMAP 3xxx series is extremely power-efficient. Even the GPU is stupidly power efficient. Read the docs on the SGX530 and Cortex A8.
I just want to say that Apple products have absolutely horrible tollerence for heat. I have a G4 Mac Mini that I got new in 2006, just weeks before the minis switched to intel, and one year and a few months later, it began to horribly overheat and constantly shut down, due the the hot summer heat, in an air conditioned apartment. I did run games on it and it was my main computer for the duration of it's life, but when I would touch the bottom of it, sometimes it nearly burned me, it was extremely hot. Now I know those G4's run hot, but honestly if a system can't handle some load from time to time and be on all day every day for months at a time (remember, most Mac users just sleep their computers or don't bother at all), then it should not be sold until it can handle that kind of use. I don't think I'm a heavy user or anything really. Anyways, if you take a look at the heat requirements for any Apple product on their website, it reads : Between 35F and 95F as operational temperatures. I don't know about you, but I think that in a small enclosure like, say, a tiny desktop, or a laptop, or a PHONE, MIGHT just get a good bit out of that range during normal usage. Come on, 95F? My brand new laptop (a PC) runs at 120F or so under normal conditions no heavy lifting, and when I run intensive games (it's a gaming laptop) it jumps up to about 150F, never overheats and shuts down or anything like that, and I don't have discoloring plastics on it or anything like that. I think Apple really needs to work on this issue of thermal tolerance, a normal computer sold to an average consumer, is not going to always be in a termperature controlled environment like a datacenter or a classroom or something like that. It may infact be used in a room that maybe just gets hotter then other areas. And a $500 underpowered desktop shouldn't fail under those conditions, nor should a $500 phone when one of it's main and heavily advertised features are such intensive, and heat generating things, as playing 3d games, and EDITING VIDEO.
As far as temperature reliability is concerned, Apple sucks badly I think.
I got a new black IPhone 3G S jailbroken, unlocked and using a T-Mobile SIM with OS 3.0 for about 4 days now.
When doing heavyduty stuff, specially gaming, in a normal climate of 70-75 degree it gets pretty hot but mostly on the backside and not really on the frontside.
So far I had not Overheating error problems, but that might be because I neither use it at the beach in the burning sun nor play games for a longer period than 5 minutes.
Other heavy duty applications such as watching movies while using WiFi also gets the IPhone back warm to hot but not as much as certain 3D games.
So far I have no burn marks nor any unwanted required breaktime for cooldown, but I also never had a phone before that got warm or hot from heavy use .... but then again my blackberry couldn't do lots of the stuff that IPhone can.
I will wait and see ... if it should ever become a serious problem I will bug Apple as long as it takes to get it replaced.
Only worry I have is that a possible replacement IPhone with fixed overheating issue might be running a newer OS with no jailbreak available anymore.
My HTC Touch Pro gets really warm-hot when the screen is on for a long period of time, when Im using GPS or when I have been on a call for 10 minutes or longer.
It's cause these jackasses live on their phones play with them all day like their penis. Give your phone a break once ina while and start hovering over it.
I used my 3GS for over 8 hours on a flight, plugged into an AC outlet, playing 3D games, browsing the web with inflight wifi, watching videos, and never had a problem. It got warm but not any more than I would have expected.
News FAIL!
I don't have an iPhone, I'm just on my way to give those suckers grief in comments.
Ok, I will:
hehe, you all suck with these shyitty-brown iPhones!! :)
I am wondering who is behind these weird stories? MS or RIM or just illogical person?
I bet they own a black helicopter whoever they are...
@ Paul
So you are saying that it is an epidemic then...?
Sounds like Steve Jobs has a little "overheating" problem, himself:
"Apple CEO Steve Jobs Blamed for Farting"
http://www.palluxo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=624:apple-ceo-steve-jobs-blamed-for-farting&catid=5:news&Itemid=105
That would have been funnier if whoever wrote it knew how to use a dictionary.
"When I entered the copy room on the first floor, Jobs said hello, excused himself and then quickly dissapeared. The smell of flatulence made me noxious," said our source.
I think he meant "nauseous" and "disappeared". Seriously, with the availability of the internet, how hard is it to just not spell words wrong constantly? Doesn't everything have a built in spell checker these days?
Bah!
maybe he would sniff steve jobs farts and suddenly became physically harmful or destructive to living beings
They're seriously officially stating that their product will have issues working in the summer weather? What the hell kind of product development is that? It's not like using your phone in the summer is an extreme condition or anything. Boo for failed engineering and a bigger boo for trying to convince consumers that it's acceptable.
Actually they aren't trying to convince people of that. The technical release that people keep quoting as a response was put out way before this "issue" started hitting the web. Its been over 100F pretty much constantly for the last couple of weeks here in Texas. I went bike riding with some friends one of whom left his iPhone in the car (probably got to 120F-140F), he got the "Too Hot" message on his screen when he turned his phone on. Mine that I carried with me worked just fine no problems at all.
I dislike apple but love my iPhone 3Gs I haven't had any problems and I'm in Texas and outside all the time. I did leave it in the car on day and it got hot but didn't stop working.
Well Paul, by your logic since neither my nor any of my friends' xbox 360's had a RROD, I can safely assume that that problem was all hysteria, right? It couldn't possibly be that there were some batches of faulty 360's/iphones/whatever that had these problems, that's just crazy talk!
lol it looks like the only epidemic that this poll shows is a lack of iPhone users among engadget readers.
I seriously wouldn't expect there to be huge over heating problems with the 3GS. As well as whatever console Microsoft puts out next, I mean the thing might blow up but by god it will not overheat! xD.
Time for the iWishihadaniPhonebutdon'tsonowiwilltrytoactcoolandhateonit crowd to come out.
C.
This is so weird... my computer has never had issues when I remove the fans and cover it in a thick leather case in ninety degree weather while playing games that max out the processing capabilities. Stupid Apple, don't you realize your market is people like me? Jeez...
@ Mark
Mark, Paul only deals in absolutes
@Paul
Only a Sith deals in absolutes Paul. Don't be a D-bag or a Sith for that matter
Paul: "But you see, I have a Macbook, so if I see a story about a frayed Magsafe connector and my Magsafe connector is just fine, I'm going to write it off as hysteria, unless my circumstances change."
It must be nice to live in such a vacuum.
@Mark
He doesn't want the issue looked into because it may make Apple look bad for the whole of a week or so. So slam Engadget for making the post, attack the users with the issues as a bunch of whiners, and called everyone an "Apple hater".
Fanboy for Dummies 101.
Mine got really hot once, but I was running a GPS app, and the iPhone was in a padded pouch in my backpack, so it had no ventilation. It's still as white as could be.
Well thank god for that... maybe you could organise every other person who has not had a problem to also post, it would make for such an interesting read... :)
Well, Apple has been continuously improving its products' quality so I think it's not a problem.
Satellite TV for PC
lol Paul is a PC
So where are the suckers?
I have overheated many of phones that I have had over the years, from going to the beach and just having them sitting in the sun while playing music or something. I think that ppl just need to be more careful and treat their phones a little better and not expect them to never fail while they beat the crap out of it and then say stupid apple phone doesnt work anymore!!
HAA!!!! HA-HA-HAAAA!!!!!!!
AH HO HO HO?
Sorry, warming up for Santa season...
Aaannnd sisyphus wins!
What do you win???
A white Apple branded handwarmer!! Congratulations!!
I just thought that the white covers turned different colors based on the amount of heat its exposed to... kind of like a mood ring.
Even with the D option, everyone is gonna vote your sorry ass a C.
No mention of the shoddy reporting both here and abroad regarding the "Apple blames discoloration on weather" B.S. that Engd. reposted here (apparently without reading or understanding the crappy journalism taking place on the Telegraph's original).
1.) Apple isn't making a statement about discoloration.
2.) There is an Apple Knowledge Base article regarding the display of a message that an iPhone's internal temperature has exceeded operational limits; the Kbase article says that ensuring the iPhone the hot temperatures may prompt this message.
I don't care if this is the part where we Love/Hate Apple to drive pageviews and ad revenue, but how about some journalistic standards? Engd. is wrong, cited to a crap story, and still hasn't effectively clarified that. You want bloggers to be treated like journalists? Act like journalists.