So the new phone has been out for six days and for about four of them mine has been running hot enough that I didnt want to hold it up to my face for a phone call. Not "warm in your pocket on a sunny day" hot. Actually uncomfortable. I noticed it first on day two, plugged in on the kitchen counter doing a big photo library restore, and the back of the thing (titanium, supposedly the whole point of the upgrade) was hot enough that I actually said "oh" out loud to an empty room.
Turns out it wasnt just me. By the weekend there were enough reports floating around that Apple actually said something about it, which for Apple is unusual this fast. They confirmed on Wednesday that yes, some iPhone 15 and 15 Pro units were running warmer than expected, and pinned it on a mix of things: a bug in iOS 17 itself, some third-party apps that had been recently updated and were hammering the CPU harder than they should (Instagram, Uber, and Asphalt 9: Legends got called out by name in some of the reporting, which is a genuinely odd trio to see grouped together), and general new-phone setup stuff like restoring from a huge backup, which is exactly what I was doing when mine got bad.
What Apple was clear about, and I believe them here, is that its not the titanium frame itself or a hardware defect. That was the first theory everyone jumped to because titanium conducts heat differently than the stainless steel the 14 Pro used, and it made for a tidy story. But it really does look like a software thing. Apple pushed out iOS 17.0.3 yesterday specifically to address it, on top of the 17.0.2 bug fix update from a few days before that. Two point-releases in about a week for a phone that's not even two weeks old is a lot, even by Apple standards.
I updated last night and havent had a chance to really stress test it yet, but the difference during normal use (texting, some browsing, twenty minutes of Instagram scrolling, which feels appropriate given the app got named as part of the problem) is noticeable. It's just a phone now instead of a phone-shaped hand warmer.
A few things about this whole saga bug me a little though. One: this is a $999 phone (more if you got the Pro Max, which most of the people I know with one did) and the fix for it running dangerously hot was "wait a week and update the software." That's a fine outcome, genuinely, Apple moved fast. But it's also just become the expected pattern now, ship the hardware, let a million people find the edge cases, patch it after launch weekend. I dont love that this is normal.
Two, and this is a smaller complaint, but: the whole USB-C transition on this phone was supposed to be the headline story of the 15 line. No more Lightning, finally, after what feels like a decade of Apple dragging its feet while the rest of the industry standardized. And instead the entire launch week conversation got hijacked by "is my phone going to burn my hand off." I actually like the USB-C port a lot so far, I can charge it with the same cable I use for my laptop and that alone feels like it should've been the story. Nobody's talking about that part right now.
Also, small aside that has nothing to do with the fix: I still think Apple should give you the charging brick in the box. I know that ship sailed years ago and I know the environmental packaging argument, I've read it, I still dont buy it, and I say this as someone who now owns four different USB-C bricks of varying wattage scattered around the house because none of them are labeled clearly enough to know which one is fast-charging capable.
Anyway. If you've got a 15 or 15 Pro and it's been running hot, go update. It's a real fix for a real problem, not a placebo. Just don't expect it to fully cool down while it's mid-restore, mine's still a little toasty right now finishing up the last of my photo library.