The iPhone 15 Pro has a overheating problem, but don't blame TSMC's 3nm chips

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have both been on sale for less than a week but some people are already reporting an issue that only affects those two specific models - the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus aren't affected.

That issue is that the new best iPhones are reportedly getting a bit warm during use, although not everyone appears to be experiencing the issue. The fact that it's only impacting the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max has led some people to point the finger at the new A17 Pro chip that powers them, especially considering the iPhones heat up when placed under heavy load. However, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the issue isn't specifically the chip or its 3nm fabrication by TSMC.

Instead, Kuo believes that the real issue is that Apple made compromises when designing the new titanium iPhones to make them as light as possible. With that in mind, Kuo believes that these changes will have negatively impacted the thermal properties of the device itself, making it get too warm during heavy usage like playing games.

As for a fix, Kuo believes that Apple will likely release future software updates to help keep the new iPhones cool, but he doesn't expect huge improvements unless Apple chooses to lower the A17 Pro's speed. If that's the case, it will likely impact performance. With that in mind, Apple will no doubt want to avoid going that route if at all possible.

In reality, if Apple does decide to take action, we should expect the A17 Pro to maintain its high-speed performance in bursts but then throttle itself earlier to avoid it getting too warm. We'll keep an eye out for a future iOS update to see if things change.