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Some Overheating 3GS iPhones Glow Pink

Posted by kdawson on from the twenty-first-century-hearth dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that dozens of users of the recently released iPhone 3GS have reported overheating issues, with some iPhone owners unable to pick up the device because the handset gets so hot to the touch, while others say the casing turns pink with the heat. 'I am definitely experiencing issues with the iPhone running warm and quick battery life lost,' writes Tom Goldstein on one discussion board. 'The phone seems to warm up almost immediately if I am doing anything that pulls data over the network.' Some users have said the device has been too hot to put to their ear while making a phone call, and others say the overheating seems to occur when owners are using the iPhone's mapping software, which uses the handset's built-in GPS technology. Melissa J. Perenson writes at PC World: 'I became aware the handset had become very hot. Very, very hot — not just on the back, but the entire length of the front face, too.' Some gadget experts believe faulty batteries could be the cause of overheating and poor battery life. 'My guess is there's going to be a whole lot of batteries affected because these [iPhones] are from very large production runs,' said Aaron Vronko, who fixes iPods and iPhones. 'If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands [of device], if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more.'"

3 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Android G1 also heats when using GPS by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My Android G1 - normally cool (in the thermal sense) heats quickly when using GPS for sustained periods. It doesn't become uncomfortable to hold or to use but it's definitely noticable. My bet is that the iPhone problem is also GPS related.

    --
    I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
    1. Re:Android G1 also heats when using GPS by vlm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My bet is that the iPhone problem is also GPS related.

      My somewhat ancient Garmin GPS runs for somewhat over a day continuous on two AA batteries. It has a nice full color screen about the size of a iphone although much lower resolution. It is an inch or two larger than an iphone in all dimensions but that's mostly empty space... its engineered to be less dense than water, so as to float.

      So, thats about 3 volts at about 1.5 amp-hours equals about 4.5 watt-hours.

      Dividing 4.5 watthours by a pessimistic 24 hours, gives 188 milliwatts.

      I'm sure a decade or so newer engineering results in much lower power consumption. Checking out the technical specifications PDF for the first google I found:

      http://www.latitudetechnology.com/gps_module.html

      You're looking at about 23 mA at about 3 volts, for a whopping 70 milliwatts, almost a third less for an "april of 2009" GPS module. Technology marches onward I guess.

      1) A quarter watt dumped in a case that large is not going to be detectably warmer, but it'll probably be almost enough to stop dew from condensing on the surface, most of the time. Dew will condense on the surface of my powered up GPS in extreme weather conditions. To get "warm" with a quarter watt, compare the tiny volume and tiny surface area of a typical quarter-watt power resistor to an iphone.

      2) Considering handheld cellphones are allowed to transmit 600 mW and I suspect the overall RF section is less than 50% efficient, the phone probably dumps at least 3 times the heat from its RF section than its GPS section. Then probably about half the emitted RF gets adsorbed by the users hands, figure about a watt of total heat in the hands just from the transmitter. GPS or no, will not be noticeable.

      The problem is not the GPS module. Now a GPS application could "require" a multi-core GHZ class pentium processor at full blast, but thats a software engineering problem not a "GPS" problem, since obviously a "real handheld GPS" does the same task without turning into a handwarmer. A bad enough programmer could make a tetris that would burn your hands, but that doesn't mean tetris is the problem.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  2. It can be CPU by Ilgaz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am about to file a bug report to a Symbian beta software because I busted it using amazing amounts of CPU if it changes the wireless network while other network it was connected is doing kinda OK with 30-40 percent levels.

    It is more like Apple OS X scheme of things, access point groups. Issue comes from application since it has its own access points code. Doesn't use system's built in.

    How could I figure the huge CPU load? Simple, battery went hot and died in hours. It is like old fashion way of figuring CPU load.

    What I mean is don't eliminate CPU immediately, they are portable devices running portable CPU which was never designed for 24/7 full CPU load.

    What we need is, some heroic blog hack the iPhone 3G, install standard UNIX tools (ps) and run ps -aux (or top) whenever it gets hot. I am NOT suggesting it to actual iPhone 3GS owners. You bought it, report bug to Apple using http://bugreporter.apple.com/ . Duplicate reports are always welcome at Apple, they work like ''vote''.