So... how warm does your iPhone get?

[Jason McConnell]

I just pulled my phone off the dock to make a quick call and as soon as I put it to my ear, I had to take it away! That sucker is hot! It hasn't been charging for very long, but definitely much warmer than I ever expected it to get

 

[Tramain]

If it was that hot I would take it to a apple store.

 

[Ipheuria]

You should take it in and they will replace it I've had two friends who had the same thing happen to them. One friend used his phone for a 4 hour call and the phone got so hot during the call that the screen became discolored. I had another friend whose phone would get really hot and the battery wouldn't last very long and he found that it had to do with the bluetooth being on, so he turned it off when he wasn't using it. I haven't had any problems with mine either with battery life or it getting hot.

 

[Jason McConnell]

Yeah I don't use bluetooth unless I'm driving... and still disable wifi if it's not available. Considering I was on the phone for well over an hour last night with no problem, this is strange o.0

 

[big9erfan]

Mine gets warm to the point where I can tell it's warmer than usual, but that's after playing some apps that are fairly rough on graphics. It's never become uncomfortable though.

 

[caspianx67]

Mine's getting warm enough I can feel the heat through the AT&T CaseMate leather sleeve. I wouldn't say it gets HOT though.

 

[alex6speed]

I've only felt my 3GS hot twice. That was from listening to a game via MLB At Bat outside in the Arizona 110 heat (in the shade, of course), and grilling for about 30 - 45 minutes. It was extensively hot, but I attribute it to the environment plus the constant streaming.

As for normal indoor use (where things aren't incredibly hot), it gets warm enough to feel through the DLO silicon case, but it doesn't get that bad. It did get really hot after my niece was playing Cooking Mama for perhaps an hour (it was enough to stall).

I'm on the fence on if I want to return mine or not, but I know those two situations are extremely rare for me everyday.

 

[ryrycalguy]

I use mine heavily. My 3GS doesn't get any hotter than my 3G did (or any other phone I've had before for that matter).

 

[ardoreal]

Mine never gets warm, no matter what I run on it.

 

[lordzod01]

Mine used to get hot alot. I came to it a couple of. Weeks back and the wifi had stopped working. The phone stopped getting hot, I took it in to genius and swapped it out. The strange thing was after the wifi stopped working the top half of the back never even got warm, it must have been the chip.

 

[Ipheuria]

Even in computers vidcards run hot so if it's got a higher performance graphics chip and you run games it's going to heat up. I think you can feel the heat now because they switched to plastic housing instead of aluminum which would absorb and dissipate the heat. My 1st gen has never gotten hot no matter what I've thrown at it.

 

[jhamilton3]

My gets warm every now and then during a charge at night..

 

[wickedwahine11]

I'm glad to hear most people haven't had problems. I saw a run of stories online and in the local paper about people's iPhones overheating, but it looks like it was not a common problem.

 

[runner7395]

Mine gets warm but not any worse than other phones I have had.

 

[Jason McConnell]

So far it's only been that one time for me. I just pulled it off the dock from being charged overnight and it seems normal.

 

[Christinme7890]

yeah, i use mine pretty constantly. It kinda replaces my laptop. It gets a little warm as in I can feel it warm, but this is usually if I am talking on the phone for a long time or if I play a game for a long time. It gets warm but nothing bad.

 

[traylorc]

I haven't had any issues with my 3Gs overheating or becoming too hot.

 

[NDPTAL85]

Probable cause and solution.

I think I figured out why only a select number of people are experiencing this problem. It seems to be caused by specific routers your iPhone is connected to for wifi. I have an 802.11n Linksys 160N router that I use in mixed N+G mode for all my gadgets. It was makin my iPhone overheat to the extent that USB powered chargers couldn't recharge it and when unplugged the battery would die in 3 hours. I went to my friends house and noticed my iPhone went back to normal. He has a regular 802.11g only Linksys, which I also have at home but wasn't using anymore.

So I went back home and reconnected my G router just for my iPhone to use and had my iPhone forget the N router and I've been back to normal operation ever since.

So until Apple releases a firmware update to address this issue I would suggest adding a different wifi AP to your network specifically for your iPhone.

PS. I originally thought Mobile Me was the culprit but that turned out not to be the case.

 

[brucerm01#IM]

it's probably fine

So far it's only been that one time for me. I just pulled it off the dock from being charged overnight and it seems normal.

sometimes a rogue process gets stuck running in the background and causes things to heat up, and kills battery life. if this ever happens again, and it shouldn't happen often, i would just restart the phone. anything running that shouldn't will be cut off

 

[thumper_net]

No problems with my 32gb white 3gs , but have read about the overheating problem , seems to be more a 3gs white 16gb , just find myself the battery is not much better than my 8gb black 3g , apple made such a big story over more battery life but its only playing videos and music which they claim is better , for 3g its the same as the older 3g phone. Wifi also drains the 3gs quicker than the 8 gb ,in the time its taken to type this i have lost 2% of my battery on my 3gs , and i type fast