Is it bad if my phone overheats while gaming?

[Shodan]

My previous Samsung Galaxy S7 would get a bit hot just from regular charging, but my new iPhone XR doesn't get hot after hours of constant usage, no matter what I'm doing on it. However, I installed GTA San Andreas so that I can have something to play because I'll be away from home for a while and I noticed that it gets hot after only 5 minutes of playing. It annoys me and I'm afraid that it could damage my phone. Is that normal and could it harm my phone?

[nullable]

So is your phone overheating, or is it just getting hot and you don't like it?


At any rate most hardware will throttle or shutdown if it gets too hot, this has been pretty standard for nearly 20 years now.

[Shodan]

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

So is your phone overheating, or is it just getting hot and you don't like it?


At any rate most hardware will throttle or shutdown if it gets too hot, this has been pretty standard for nearly 20 years now.

Sorry, not overheating, it just gets a bit hot. Not much, but I can still notice it and it makes me feel uncomfortable, not only because of the feel in my hands but also because I always feel like something's wrong when things like that happen, such as a part of my PC making weird noise and so on.

[𝔇ave]

heat generated while in use won't affect the hardware of the phone but excessive heat can damage the battery and certainly reduce it's usable life.

things you can do while gaming on phone to extend battery life and reduce heat is closing other apps. this will reduce memory and cpu usage therefore using less power and generating less heat.

put it in flight mode. again less resources usage means less heat

play with a fully charged battery rather than a flat battery on charge. the heat generated by charging on top of the heat generated by resource usage can heat that poor little phone up quite a bit.

[nullable]

Isn't the iPhone made out of aluminium? Which might conduct heat a bit better than phones using plastic cases. And The XR, being one of the highest end phones might generate more heat than phones with more conservative specs...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250194207

I mean not much you can do with a cellphone, turn it off and on, reset it, use it on a block of dry ice? Generally if there is something wrong you're going to have to utilize the warranty.

[Autumn_]

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Isn't the iPhone made out of aluminium? Which might conduct heat a bit better than phones using plastic cases. And The XR, being one of the highest end phones might generate more heat than phones with more conservative specs...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250194207

I mean not much you can do with a cellphone, turn it off and on, reset it, use it on a block of dry ice? Generally if there is something wrong you're going to have to utilize the warranty.

Actually, LTT did a video recently that shows 'watercooling' a phone.
Pointless in normal use, cunky, bulky, near useless. But it's a fun experiment, and it worked.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Autumn:

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Isn't the iPhone made out of aluminium? Which might conduct heat a bit better than phones using plastic cases. And The XR, being one of the highest end phones might generate more heat than phones with more conservative specs...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250194207

I mean not much you can do with a cellphone, turn it off and on, reset it, use it on a block of dry ice? Generally if there is something wrong you're going to have to utilize the warranty.

Actually, LTT did a video recently that shows 'watercooling' a phone.
Pointless in normal use, cunky, bulky, near useless. But it's a fun experiment, and it worked.

Actually, I wasn't referring to pointless, clunky, bulky, near useless mods. Seriously, my dry ice joke makes for a better solution than that mess. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F91bGJBQLFc)

If the phone is overheating from a defect OP you should utilize the warranty. Or the apple helpdesk can reassure him that the phone is operating normally.

Phone hardware can run above 60c under load, which is 140+ degrees fahrenheit, which is fairly hot to the touch and can be uncomfortable. And most phones are fairly highly integrated and getting into the guts to fix problems or just screw around is not for people who still want to utilize their warranty or can't afford to brick $750-$900 worth of hardware.

[Shodan]

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll just use it normally and stop thinking about it unless it turns into a real issue, but that shouldn't happen. As I said, this is the first time since I got the phone 3 months ago that it became a bit hot. It's always normally cold while playing less demanding games, watching YouTube, downloading stuff, streaming using Steam Link, watching full-length films using VLC and so on, even if I do all of these at the same time. I guess GTA: San Andreas is just a really demanding game for phones, and if it wasn't normal for phones to get a bit hot while playing, it wouldn't even exist for phones in the first place. I'll just have fun and stop worrying about something that isn't even an issue.

[Autumn_]

Originally posted by Dr Doom:

Those "water cooled" phones are actually low pressure vapour condensation chambers. (Heat pipes)

I know the difference between heatpipes and ''watercooling.''

I was specifically referencing a LTT video where he put a WATERBLOCK on a phone, to lower its temps.

You should try reading things before you comment on them, it avoids confusion.

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Originally posted by Autumn:

Actually, LTT did a video recently that shows 'watercooling' a phone.
Pointless in normal use, cunky, bulky, near useless. But it's a fun experiment, and it worked.

Actually, I wasn't referring to pointless, clunky, bulky, near useless mods. Seriously, my dry ice joke makes for a better solution than that mess. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F91bGJBQLFc)

If the phone is overheating from a defect OP you should utilize the warranty. Or the apple helpdesk can reassure him that the phone is operating normally.

Phone hardware can run above 60c under load, which is 140+ degrees fahrenheit, which is fairly hot to the touch and can be uncomfortable. And most phones are fairly highly integrated and getting into the guts to fix problems or just screw around is not for people who still want to utilize their warranty or can't afford to brick $750-$900 worth of hardware.

I'll check that video out later, little busy at the moment.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Well they are going to get hot when gaming, nothing you can do about it. Now if it's overheating it will warn you and throttle to cool down. So honestly it's not much to worry about.

[Shodan]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Well they are going to get hot when gaming, nothing you can do about it. Now if it's overheating it will warn you and throttle to cool down. So honestly it's not much to worry about.

You're right, I didn't even think that a warning message for high temperatures could exist, so I didn't even consider that an option. Now that I've looked it up, I have nothing to worry about. If the phone gets too hot, it would automatically display a warning message and get locked until it cools down. That's great to know, though I should've guessed that Apple would have a solution to this. Thanks, you saved me.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It just throttles the cpu+gpu to cool it down automatically, you might experience some jitter in performance when it occurs, like while playing a game, but it should never lock the phone up entirely. I've owned plenty of phones that give such warning and often times didn't even notice any real performance loss while the hardware is being throttled

[Shodan]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

It just throttles the cpu+gpu to cool it down automatically, you might experience some jitter in performance when it occurs, like while playing a game, but it should never lock the phone up entirely. I've owned plenty of phones that give such warning and often times didn't even notice any real performance loss while the hardware is being throttled

That happens only if it's way too hot and if it becomes dangerous. Even then, you can still make emergency calls while it's cooling down. At least that's what I think happens, I'm not 100% sure.