New iPad overheating?

@ObjectiveTC,

Pulling up the taskbar, my brightness slider is just slightly above the 50% mark. I'm watching my Star Trek I rental (HD version) and have been for the past 45 minutes now. The sides and back of the iPad are actually slightly cool to the touch, though I am in my basement, but ambient temp is 22c right now.

I've experienced zero heat from the iPad when browsing. I was doing some really heavy browsing last night looking over comparisons between UDK and Unity for iOS development and was flicking between 5-6 tabs at any given time for about 2 hours. Many of the web pages had animated ads and content. I didn't notice any heat from the unit. You should absolutely not be experiencing overheating while browsing! If you're gaming on it for 2 hours straight, with it in a case, then perhaps I could see it getting a bit toasty as it is a passively cooled device.

I'm hoping that I won't suffer any extreme heat issues from my new iPad as I really like it so far. I bought my Dad an iPad 2 for Christmas and as soon as he started playing with it, I wanted one for myself! I knew Apple was announcing something in March, so figured I'd suffer and wait. So far I'm glad I did. I feel bad for those of you that are suffering from overheating issues.

After reading some of these updates, it seems like there might be a battery issue on some of these iPads. Very strange.

NovaSins wrote:

10 degress hotter.....

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/19/new-ipad-10-degrees-hotter/

"According to the site's measurements, Cupertino's flagship slab reached 33.6 degrees centigrade (92.5 Fahrenheit), compared to 28.3 centigrade (82.9 Fahrenheit) with the iPad 2"

I wouldn't consider that "burning hot" by any means. Interesting.

Yes, my "new Ipad" is also draining the battery very very fast without even using it that much and also is getting very hot and make it uncomfortable to use.

My son (5 yo) complained yesterday of "burned hand" while playing with this ipad and when I went to help him I could feel that indeed it was very hot for an adult, tooooo hot for a kid.

I want to know what is going on because as it is I don't feel safe to let my kid play with the ipad.

Shame because he has adopted my previous ipad and ipad2 without any problem and now I have to restrict him to play with this "new iPad".

I hope apple reply to our concerns very soon!

I purchased iPad 64Gb 4G

Ta!

I am writing this post on my iPad 2 which is cool as a cucumber. Thank goodness I hung onto it because the new iPad is going back for a refund. I just ran 25 minutes of a Netflix movie on both .. and the new model is too hot to hold comfortably. It actually started heating up while I was reading email and browsing some of my photos. Hah. My laptop can do that without heating up.

And can I just be the first to say it: the Retina display is overrated. Oh, sure the icons are a little more crisp, but you call that an innovation? Until I put it side by side with the 2, I really could not tell any difference.

On top of the heat problem, the battery runs down more quickly on the new one.

Maybe the iPad 4th generation will be worth the money. The 3rd gen. Is not. I am loving my 2 even more than before.

I am very happy my iPad now runs very cold, it's nice, I am keeping the batery under 50% life and brightness 85%, I like that but what else I can do if apple says this is normal :( hope this help someone.

I think we all know what we have to do which is to return the iPad. I love Apple's products as much as the next guy, but let's not feel too sorry for them. They simply did not do a good enough job with this iteration of the iPad, maybe next year. They also have so much money now that they are giving it away to the stock holders. It was reported that Apple sold over 3 million iPads over the weekend. I hope they all return their iPad forcing Apple to revise and fix this iPad sooner rather than a year from now.

Love the screen and voice input had a lot of potential.

Thank you @tom4jax for putting things in perspective.

tom4jax wrote:

And can I just be the first to say it: the Retina display is overrated. Oh, sure the icons are a little more crisp, but you call that an innovation? Until I put it side by side with the 2, I really could not tell any difference.

Really?

I can RDP into my development workstation at 2048x1536 and still read all the tiny text perfectly. I suspect you can't do that on an iPad 2. I could immediately tell the difference between the iPad 2 I bought for my Dad and my new one. The colour saturation and accuracy seem to be better on the new Retina display as well.

Hmmm. Interesting. I turned up the brightness (which is far too bright for my overly sensitive eyes), shut off auto lock. This is when I'm at 70%. I then put on a 2 1/2 hour movie. I let it run like that for several hours - all while I was leaving then coming back from time-to-time playing Scrabble. When I went back to it, it didn't have a warm spot anywhere. Then, I repeated the same actions, except I plugged it in. Even while charging (yeah, charger gets a little hot,), the iPad remained as cool as before. All of this time, it is seated in a wrap-around leather case.

Personally I think a lot of people are blowing the heat problem "too hot to hold" out of proportion. My iPad 3rd Generation does get hot, quite hot, but it's only the left side (when held in portrait) or the corner. If you're gaming for most games you will use it in landscape, you hold the edges of the device and not put your whole palm on the back of the iPad.

Yes it gets hot, but is it too hot that it will burn you? No. All electronics generate heat and when you put that amount of battery power in a device and have dual-core processor with quad-core graphics, whether we like it or not it will generate a lot of heat.

Likewise it cools down just as quick as it heats up. Providing it

a) doesn't burn you

b) doesn't do any lasting damage to the insides of the iPad or screen

then I think it's something we will all have to live with if we want better processor, better graphics and better screen.

That's just my 2 cents.

So far it seems like the heating issue is a random distribution, which suggests an inconsistancy in the iPad's manufacturing - kind of like not buying a new car built on a Monday.

RobinT60 adds another factor - the leather case. I reported no problems with heating. In fact, the lower left back and front of my 64gb wi-fi, which has been running 12 hours steady, actually feels cool to the touch. But I have been running without either a case or screen protector the entire time.

To what extent do iPad covers keep normal heat from disipating? Or are "birthday suit" iPads overheating as well?

Drained the battery and recharged it 3 times now. Seems got improvement but the battery usage is still not good, especially when it gets warm. Fully charged and discountiously used from 12 pm-6 pm and the battery is down to less than 10% already. My iPad 2 works much better than the new one. Considering return it but I ordered through online store, the return process seems complex.

IMO, it's running well within spec if it's getting warm to the touch with continuous use. Heck, my MBP gets too hot to rest on bare legs when used hard...yet it's 3½ years old and going strong, albeit on the second battery, first went over 500 cycles. My 64GB 4G LTE iPad doesn't approach anything close to that...merely a warm feel on the left-hand side when downloading a movie...certainly not hot.

Anyway, I'd say no worries. But if you're really concerned, invest in AppleCare+ just in case.

BTW, AppleCare+ must be activated within 30 days of purchase. You don't have a year like you do with computers. And it's only good for two years total (one year beyond Apple's basic warranty) but you do get two incidents of accidental damage. Drop that baby and crack the screen and Apple replaces it for a $49 deductible.

I meant to mention that I also have on the Zagg screen protector as well. So Targus leather case, screen protector, and running it with a lot of heavy apps, and I don't notice any heat. Now, I am always holding the case, so maybe I missed something. But since I've seen this thread, I've been checking it constantly, and it is just fine.

I am making my concern know on this board like so many others so Apple realizes this is really an issue. My new iPad (32 GB, ATT) gets uncomfortably hot in the lower half after 15 minutes of moderate use. I am considering going back to my iPad 2 for want of comfort! Let's hope a software fix can cool things down somehow.

Just adding to the volume; my new iPad is also overheating to a very uncomfortable level - hottest in lower left corner (portrait). This not merely warm.

Aftercare case logged and have a genius appt booked!

This is hot whilst (attempting) to charge and also under use off charge.

Off topic but also - charging is very poor - even using the supplied plug and cable - only charges in standby / sleep mode - switched on it holds current charge; any use causes charge to drain even when plugged in (and with no location services, mobile data or bluetooth). [will post this in another appropriate thread as well]