Owners say iPhone 3GS is a scorcher Owners of Apple’s latest iPhone, the 3GS, have begun letting off steam online with claims that the smartphone gets hot enough to cause itself and its owners physical harm. iphone_3gs_burn This 3GS' owner claimed his super-hot phone caused burn marks on the back 3GS owners from around the globe have posted pictures and …
Was playing with a friend's 3G S at the weekend, and even just browsing the net using Safari made the device noticably warm. The pink rubber case it was enclosed in probably wasn't helping.
However, I'm not exactly surprised that when kept between pillow and sheets and slept on, that it would get hot enough to burn. How is the heat supposed to dissipate?
I can't say I've noticed my 3GS 16GB getting particularly hot, but I've not used it for more than an hour continuously.
It would be interested to know whether the users that have complained have been keeping their phone in any kind of case since that's not going to help heat dissipation (neither is smothering it with a pillow to be honest).
Look, if it's a problem under a pillow, then it's a problem in the inside pocket of a cosy winter jacket. People WILL put these things in cozy places, and should consequently be designed with low heat dissipation (which also has the added bonus of longer battery life). If it was a laptop, then fine, don't wrap it in a duvet. This thing should be DESIGNED to be in a cozy pocket while performing its normal functions. However, let's take a closer look at it...
Now how much power does it kick out? Back of the envelope calculation: if it's using a 1219mAh battery at 3.7V (http://tinyurl.com/3gsteardown), that's a total of 4500mWh of energy available. So, he was playing music, which Apple claims it can do for 30 hours with a full battery (http://tinyurl.com/nowbfj). This gives a mean consumption (and therefore dissipation) of a piddling 150mW. Not enough to get very toasty at all.
Now, the iPhone 3GS weighs 135g (http://tinyurl.com/3gsspecs). So, if we assume that its specific heat capacity is comparable to that of steel (although that's possibly a weak link in my chain), i.e. 0.460J/g/K, we can calculate the maximum temperature rise from a full discharge, assuming NO heat is lost at all (e.g. in the case of being neatly insulated by a pillow). The heat capacity of the whole phone is approx 62 J/K. 4500mWh is equal to 16200 Joules (4.5J/s * 60 * 60), leading to a maximum temperature rise of 16200 / 62 = 261 Kelvin.
Even starting from room temperature, 281 degrees Celsius is pretty hot for anyone's money. Now it's probably unlikely to have absolutely zero heat loss under a pillow, especially over 30 hours of play, so it breaks down at this point. However, I conclude that it's theoretically possible for the iPhone 3GS to get hot enough to burn you severely. But probably only if it was made from highly polished steel and kept in a vacuum.
Those blaming the user for putting the phone under his pillow are totally missing the point. Of course being under a pillow isn't the greatest for keeping devices cool.
But why should you have to worry about heat dissipation when all you want to do is play some music? Do you think he would've had to worry about heat if he'd put a Walkman, portable CD player, or almost any other MP3 player under his pillow?
Them: "I can't believe my beloved, holier-than-thou iFoney got so hot."
Me: "What do you expect, you pack it inside a cheap and nasty PVC cover and an entire bed and THEN lie on it whilst it's running an application, of course it's going to get hot."
Them: "Yeh but it's just a phone, y'know what I mean?"
Me: "If it's "just a phone" why the **** did you spend, and are still spending, so much money on it?"
Them: "Yeh but...because...well...but...but"
Me: *SLAP* "Twit"
Firstly, i am an iphone owner, 3g.
No phone should get that hot from just being left under the pillow. Phone would be on standby so whats causing the heat. No mention in the article that he had left it playing music and even at that, there is no way it should get that hot. No matter what way you look at it.
its a flaw, simple.
That said, its probably not a flaw in Every iPhone, most likely confined to a limited number.
Also, has anybody noticed the volume of the speaker drop dramatically after upgrading to 3.0? Mine has gone down a good bit and yes, i have checked everything. Even uploaded a new plist file to increase it but didnt make much difference.
When it gets too hot then it crashes even durring talkign on the phone.
What I learned from this is that I must have car windows rolled up and the phone must be clipped onto one of the air vents then within under a minute the iphone will be cool enough to reboot and will work normally.
Well, lets put this in perspective.
Yesterday i set the 3GS in my dashboard dock, hooked it up to the charging cable and my stereo.
I set the music playing at max volume output, turned on maps, queued my location with the compas on, and drove 3 hours with the screen turned on. When i arrived, considdering the phone was not only under heavy loads, but also in direct sunlight on a black dashboard, and it's the black model 3GS, it was only comfortably warm when i arrived at my destination.
The trip back I did the same thing, but with the screen off. It seemed a bit cooler the second time, but not much.
I had a nearly 2 hour conversation with a friend last night, the phone in my pocket the whole time. No issues. Slightly warm, but it did not keep getting warmer after the first 10 minutes.
A 3 hour heavy load in direct, hot SC, sunlight (it was 102 degrees this weekend), and it was simply "noticably" warm. It did not feel hot, nor did i feel there was an issue. I turned off the screen, got the music running again though headphones, and thought nothing more of it.
Placing it under a pillow, or in an insulated winter coat pocket, that's a recipie for disaster. The device might make it a few hours without causing an issue, but extended use, say all night, and you're lucky it wouldn't explode. The heat has to go somewhere... My wife's camera phone gets hotter than the 3G S did when she leaves it playing music in her purse (it's not nice enough to auto stop when you unplug the headphones, and she often kills the battery that way).
I was using my iphone 3g every night to goto sleep with on the os 2.2.1 and all is well. and under my pillow.
First time I used it with OS 3.0 full charged and the charger was removed on the way to the bedroom and only on no more than 5 hours 30 mins as i went at 11:30pm and up at 5:30am I woke up and it was very very hot and the battery was total flat. and this was fully charged..at bedtime
Never had this problem at all with os 2.2.1
Also my iphone does not like my password, i have to sync it every time to get it to take my aol password which i have used with my iphone since getting it and has been my account details since i had the ipod touch 2nd gen, and all apple put in an email was the link for the forgotten password site. and this is on OS 3.0 again
Its sent to Apple's/O2 repair place and if its no better it will be cancel contract time...
Fire icon as that was how hot it was after 5 hours
Why did Apple move away from the iPhone 1's nice metal back cover - cost? That is an excellent heat sink and it DOES NOT CRACK when you drop it - as happens with nice slippery shape stuff. Maybe its some marketing droids idea to sell some extra covers to keep the revenue stream going...
A number of Overheating issues are caused by the battery/electronics inside the IP3GS. With the Number of units being Mass produced this is to be expected.
Faulty lithium-based batteries pose a serious Fire risk in many products!
Cant wait for Fuel cells take off in the consumer market !
"No phone should get that hot from just being left under the pillow. Phone would be on standby so whats causing the heat. No mention in the article that he had left it playing music and even at that, there is no way it should get that hot."
Erm, from the article:
"Another iPhone 3GS owner told PC World that he fell asleep with the phone under his pillow while playing music through the headphones"
I read this article and I looked at the back. It looks normal under regular light, but under the sunlight, even for a few seconds, I started to see a major "color differentiation" from there. This could be the equivalent of the pink-red color. From experiences, the iPhone 3G S gets warmer faster while the original that I had used previously took at least 20 minutes to actually heat up, faster with Wi-Fi.
As others have mentioned, I can put any mp3 player or phone I've ever owned under a pillow and everything except my most recent phone wouldn't even be warm. My current phone does the 3G nonsense, which apparently means that it gets hotter and uses more battery while making the same phone calls. I've spent a lot of time out of 3G coverage, and it runs remarkably cooler and longer.
In any case, no pocketable device should become hot enough to burn you, or even make you uncomfortably warm, while it's being used reasonably.
Lol i don't know if you people do not notice but most people have a weird idea that they should keep their phones in their pockets! I mean idk what is wrong with these people but if your pants does not let the heat dissipate then what will be next. It's not Apple hardware that is the problem, it's people not willing to change!
"However, I conclude that it's theoretically possible for the iPhone 3GS to get hot enough to burn you severely. But probably only if it was made from highly polished steel and kept in a vacuum."
I love mathematicians.
"assuming elephants are perfect spheres with a diameter of 3 meters"
My iPhone was in airplane mode and was playing music on shuffle repeat all.
while under pillow.
So no gsm radio running as i have 3g turned off.
wif or bluetooth not on.
Yet very hot to touch and flat battery on OS 3.0
On OS 2.2.1 no problem with heat and even when one time i did leave phone turned on it was still playing music when i woke up and not hot.
Also I di dfind on OS 2.2.1 that sometimes If i got a call the screen would not come on and it was out in the open...
"Does this heating begin during the use of the 'Onan' app? The one where you rub it back and forward to make it moan and groan?"
I would have thought it would be doing this with Grinder :-)
[disclaimer: I'm not into that "market" but heard Stephen Fry mention the app when on Top Gear :-)]
"This word "hot"
By Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 29th June 2009 15:16 GMT
My girlfriend's always complaining about her laptop and power supplies getting dangerously hot. Whenever I check them they just seem warm. For some reason, for a certain size of device, some people seem to think that a bit of warmth implies it's going to burst into flames."
THIS!
To me this is when my iPhone was that hot i could not keep it touching my arm due to the amount of heat it was giving off.
I have had a replacement as the one i had would not take my password unless i kept syncing with itunes. then would only last for so long.
What is strange it only came with OS 2.2.1 installed and not OS 3.0 and starts with the 5 on the serial number...
My 3G was icy cold yesterday after navigating in maps and streaming music over bluetooth for hours on end in the hot sun.... but that might just be because it's mounted on the vent and the aircon was on full blast. ;)
There is obviously a fault in the phones that heat up to the point of burning though, if nothing else I would have thought the phone would switch itself off if it had detected it's heat was above a certain level, the laptops do it, so the phones should - plus a phone doesn't heat up THAT much just using the ipod function, there's a dedicated chip for audio decoding isn't there? Even if there isn't, it takes next to nothing these days to decode music... so either he was running another application that was hammering the processor none stop, or the phone is faulty... I'd go with faulty though since some others are reporting the same thing.
This is really a symptom of a bigger problem at Apple though - Apple stays silent while users are forced to complain amongst themselves and to papers until they come out with a fix or even acknowledge the issue - which is wrong - if they only replied with a "we have reports of some users having issues with overheating phones, we are in the process of investigating and will get back to you as soon as possible" message people would be a little more forgiving, even if it's a manufacturing fault (which happens to everybody!)..... instead the silence just breeds conspiracy and guesswork which is one of Apple's most annoying features.
Makes me wonder though - I wonder if I could release an iBurn app that just heats the phone up to the point of damaging itself or the user... could sell well if you advertise it as a ticket in on settlement apple will give people if people start taking apple to court! - sell it for 99p, cheaper than doing the lottery, with better odds! :)
OK, running a *phone* under a pillow *SHOULD* be fine.
A) Phones shouldn't run that hot.
B) MP3 playback is not CPU intensive, so even if it ran hot under full load it STILL shouldn't be running hot under that use scenario.
OS3 making old IPhones run hotter? Probably it bumped up the clock speed. Apple's done this before, they will increase clock speed with an IPhone OS upgrade; people think there was some great efficiency gain in the OS while it's actually the processor running a 100mhz or so faster. Then if they get too many complaints they clock it down a bit in the next release.
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