New iPad overheating?

GIve me a break:

"useless if you can't hold it in your hand without welding mittens on"

That has got to be one of the wimpiest over exaggerations I've ever read on a support forum. It's absolutely a fantastic device, and yes it may get warmer than the previous model, but as long as the batteries aren't being depleted ultrafast it really doesn't matter all that much. Do Apple a giant favor, bring back your iPad and stop complaining. Leave these forums for people with real problems. 😠

Everyone experiencing warm/hot/overheating problems should report this to Apple, along with your serial (IMEI) number - see Settings/About. Googling "Apple Product Recalls" will show that problems do occur from time to time. Though having researched the issues, found it has always been due to faults with various batches of supply from 3rd party suppliers, IE. Batteries with the iPod Nano back in 2005/2006. And yes the new processor does work harder but for throughput it has been optimised due to architecture to consume less power per processor core and run cooler.

If in doubt contact Apple and give them your device info. A pattern will allow them to quickly establish whether there is a batch problem at a component level. I have changed two products over the years with them under warranty and their service is first class. Your comments count best when coupled with calls to Service Support. I'm sticking with my iPad2, suppose that might make me a bit of a dinosaur but hey, "If it aint broken ......"

I'm pretty sure, like most Apple products, they have a fail safe in which the product turns off after 113 degrees Fahrenheit. If consumer reports did a test at 116F, wouldn't it power off at such high temperatures? Looks like you might need to install smcFanControl 😉

My battery has been performing very well in comparison to both my iPad 2 and original iPad. I'd suggest a full depletion (until it shuts itself down) and then a full recharge to 100%. Make sure it is fully charged, indiacated by the little "electrical plug" symbol showing inside of the battery symbol. Also, try to leave it plugged in for the entire charging cycle, as opposed to unplugging before it is full and then resuming charging later. Another thing to be aware of is that Li batteries may not reach their optimum capacity until being exercised through a few charge cycles. Often, with new devices, I find the battery performance improves over the first few depletion/replenishment cycles.

If you want a new iPad, buy it. If not, don't. The battery is not very good at all if you don't own the device and the device you buy now will almost certainly be the same as the one you purchase in a few months. If any changes are made they will almost certainly be software related.

Well, we all know that the battery is far larger than the orignal iPad or iPad 2 due to the amount of juice that it takes to light up that pretty new display and run that new quad-core GPU. A lithium-polymer battery is used in the new iPad just as it is in every other moble device, and if you understand how these batteries work, then it would make perfect sense as to why the new iPad runs warmer, or hot depending on your interpritation or sensitivity.

Batteries use electrolytes that require "exercising" to get the most longivity, both day to day and for the life of the battery. Heat is created during the process of excersing the battery, or while you use or charge the device. The left side of the iPad is where the logic board is located, and the exact spot where it gets hottest is more than likely where the battery connects to the board, which could be considered the "gateway" of where all of the battery's energy is flowing to, which would explain why that spot gets hottest, sort of like how your catalytic converter on your car gets blazingly hot because that's where all of the exaust from the engine is first constricted or bottled-necked.

Naturally, the faster the battery drains, the faster it gets warm/ hot, much like friction. So if you're playing a 3D action game for hours on end, then you can expect the processor to be under more duress as well as the electrolytes to be exercised that much quicker, which in turns depletes the battery that much quicker and causes a much hotter battery than you would find breifly checking emails or lightly surfing the web. Think of it like trying to start a fire the old school way with a stick running back and forth against another flat piece of wood - if your surfing the web for a few minutes or checking emails then it's the same as lightly to moderately running the stick back and forth, but if you're playing a 3D game then you're vigorously running the stick back and forth and you'll probably get that fire that you were hoping for.

I know that this isn't a super scientific answer, but it is common sense: The battery is bigger, which means that there is a lot more electrolytes that create heat when used or recharged, and if there are more electrolytes then it can only get hotter under more duress.

I obviously have no idea if this is a firmware issue that can be corrected by an update (much like the 4S battery issues), but since the iPad is using the same OS as every other Apple mobile device that is capable of running iOS 5 and we're not seeing a flood of new heat issues for iPhones or iPods with the latest 5.1 update, I'm guessing that it's due to the larger battery and the amount of power required to light up the highest resolution display currently available on the market across all devices (less the rare 4000k display) as well as the software that the ipad is capable of running, such as the Infinity Blade series. Side note: For those of you that don't know, firmware is the software that runs the hardware, in the simplest definition. If there is a bug in the firmware, one of the many affects that you would see is a hot battery or poor battery life.

Awesome post Dirty-j, this is pretty much what I was thinking. I don't see a firmware update fixing this, but its just the fact that if you are playing/running an app that is using more resources, it'll cause the device to run hotter. If anything, Apple will give away free/discounted cooling cases or something, but I think even that is too much. I consider this just like any other devince. You run lots of process or a single heavy process and the device will get warm/hot. To be honest, i'd recommend just getting a cooling case because the device itself is quite awesome and not worth returning. This is my opinion though...

Here goes chicken little! Much like antenna gate. I have checked my iPad one, two, and new one with a laser temperature reader and well there is no indication of it being hotter, within 1 degree of each other or the same

Thanks for reply regarding bringing brightness down .. But still I am having issue with overheating if I play full movie on Netflix. It makes me think of keeping the system back on table for few minutes before I start using. 😟 😟

I will follow to the post to see if Apple comes with any update

This is true with outher games too. I don't consider "words with friends HD" a processor or graphics intensive game but running it all day yesterday did cause my new iPad 16gb+wifi+4G to become quite hot to the touch. I thought it was just me being picky but others at come home confirmed that it did not seem normal. I've owned both iPad 1 and 2, actually still do, and never noticed this issue. I hated my work laptop because it became a heat pad on my lap... I hope it does not brick it or shorten the life span of my device. I just got done with linksys because their router was overheating too... this is not even funny.

I have a new iPad and noticed very quickly it was running a lot hotter than my iPad ever did and hotter than the iPad 2 I bought for people as gifts.

The new iPad heats up to 116 degrees in this Consumer Reports test. 13 degrees hotter than iPad 2.

In my world, 116 degrees is hot.

http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2012/03/our-test-finds-new-ipad-hits -116-degrees-while-running-games.html

Many people have heard of this issue and it has people now looking for this so called heating problem. The problem is there is simply no heating problem and no differance between other IPads. If you dont believe apple or me then look at this article that they test the IPad with 30min of high end usage.

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/apple-says-hot-new-ipad-3 -is-cool-enough-1072496

I bet a group of Apple haters decided to make up some issue and blow it out of proportion to cause an uproar. Before you know it, you have all kinds of people "thinking" they have a heat issue and panicking. Some competitor company probably has tons of their employees and families complaining through an interoffice memo. It sounds far fetched but I wouldn't be surprised.

I don't have any heat issues and I watch Netflix, turn my brightness up so high you could flag a plane down with it, and I play games for hours. No heat issue. Stop being suckers.

Well mine had that issue (as well as a yellow half-screen), it was replaced but the 2nd also ran hot even after setting it up as new and applying all updates (but with the update the battery life did improve). They have heard of it, when I went to return it the genius & manager said they heard about the complain and returns for that reason. Of course they do explain it as the battery being larger, but that won't make the ipad run cooler. Also, they didn't argue with me at all when I told them that it was reason for the return.

Shame, it IS uncomfotable to hold, especially since I had an iPad 2 before. The difference is HUGE, I went to the apple store and touched the new iPad and right next to it an iPad 2, and you could tell the difference. There wasn't a lot of people and none were being used at least for 15 min before I decided to try them out. So just by sitting there it got warm, not too surprise since the ones I had would get really hot by just surfing the web (my main use).

Yeah i agree many people are haters here but not all and not all bloggers are haters. I have ipad2 and bought ipad3 first day. I see significant issue with playing games and movie for longer time. I did lower the brightness but still issue remain. Maybe bad part i got. Sometimes it get really hot to hold and later need to stop playing movie and keep it back on desk for few minutes. That is annoying me. 😟