The iPhone 15 is overheating? Nothing to TSMC here

The Macalope ended last week’s column by jokingly suggesting that the iPhone 15 Pro might have a big problem with a sharp edge where the lip meets the screen. This has turned out not to be very widespread and not much of an issue. What he meant to say is that overheating would be the iPhone 15 Pro flaw that would spark a new iPhone scandal.

He regrets the error.

Yes, it turns out there has been some concern that the iPhone 15 Pro is overheating in certain-

Ming-Chi Kuo: IT’S NOT TSMC!

Whoa. Dude. First, how did you get in here? Second, did anyone say it was TSMC?

Todd? Was it you? Sometimes you wildly speculate. Larry? You have an irrational hatred of TSMC. Nope, Todd and Larry didn’t say it.

Regardless, Ming-Chi Kuo rushed to let everyone know iPhone 15 Pro overheating could not possibly be tied to TSMC’s 3nm chip manufacturing, which is new to iPhones with the A17 Pro chip.

Of course, eventually, someone probably would have suggested maybe it was TSMC’s process. Given the “Don’t look at them!” feel to Kuo’s post, it certainly seems possible that his contacts in the supply chain might have asked him to comment on it to get ahead of the curve.

My survey indicates that the iPhone 15 Pro series overheating issues are unrelated to TSMC’s advanced 3nm node.

Kuo doesn’t detail what kind of “survey” he conducted. Did he survey iPhone 15 Pro owners? Thermal experts? People who have seen the movie “Heat”, either the 1987 Burt Reynolds vehicle or the 1995 Pacino/De Niro/Kilmer oeuvre but not the lesser-known 1972 movie because who has the time to find them?

More likely he surveyed his contacts in the supply chain. And what were they gonna say? “Oh, yeah, our bad. Turns out you can make chips too small. Well, live and learn!”?

Doubtful.

This is all well and good–he’s gotta protect the ones who brought him to the Apple rumors dance–it’s when he gets into speculation that it goes a bit too far.

The primary cause is more likely the compromises made in the thermal system design to achieve a lighter weight, such as the reduced heat dissipation area and the use of a titanium frame, which negatively impacts thermal efficiency. It’s expected that Apple will address this through software updates, but improvements may be limited unless Apple lowers processor performance. If Apple does not properly address this issue, it could negatively impact shipments over the product life cycle of the iPhone 15 Pro series.

In three sentences Kuo blames Apple’s design, says that the company might have to slow down that speedy iPhone 15 Pro you just paid $1,000 and up for, and that sales could be negatively impacted because of the slowing down to fix the problem the phone definitely has which is not TSMC’s fault in any way.

You probably should have stopped with “It’s not TSMC’s fault.”

But now Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that Apple built the phone wrong, to which Apple said “Uh, no.”

In fact, Apple said the titanium frame and aluminum substructure provide better heat dissipation than any previous-generation Pro models with stainless steel frames.

So, there! Double dumbass on you!

Also contrary to what Kuo suggested, Apple said it would not be reducing the performance of the processor to make it run cooler.

Apple said its bug fix will not involve reducing the chip’s performance in order to address the temperature-related issue, and it ensured that long-term performance will not be impacted.

Further, Apple pointed to the setup process, which causes the phone to run a number of on-device processes–syncing photos, installing apps, silently judging your taste in music, etc.–that tax the processor, as well as possible bugs in new versions of certain applications.

We’ll have to see if this problem persists in the coming weeks to know if Apple’s right or just deflecting from a problem. But its explanation certainly seems the likely cause, certainly when the aforementioned bugs can heat up the iPhone 14 as well (tip o’ the antlers to Daring Fireball).

The most important thing to remember is THIS IS NOT TSMC’s FAULT!

Can’t stress that enough.