"Small number" of iPhone 3GS users complain of overheating handsets

One user said he was surprised but not overly concerned by his "warm-to-pretty-hot" iPhone, while another said her 3GS got so hot that she was afraid to hold it up against her face. Is a recall in order?

The story first cropped over the weekend, with a few owners of the white iPhone 3GS noticing that their handsets were running a bit too hot—so hot, in fact, that brownish patches (scorch marks?) were starting to appear on the glossy white backs of their phones.

Then a few tech editors began feeling the heat. Melissa J. Perenson of PC World wrote that her black iPhone 3GS got "very, very hot" if she used it while it was plugged into its AC charger—indeed, "toasty doesn't even describe hot surprisingly hot it got … it was too hot to even put the phone against my face."

Next, cranky PC World columnist David Coursey noticed that his iPhone felt "warm-to-pretty-hot" on "several occasions," although he doesn't feel the overheating problems are "terribly serious, just surprising." Meanwhile, a MacNN writer with a white iPhone 3GS "encountered the [overheating] problem independently," and confirmed some "discoloration" on the back.

Wired's Gadget Lab talked to Aaron Vronko of Rapid Repair, who thinks "faulty battery cells" are the problem and that a recall might be necessary. "If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more," Vronko told Wired.

OK, but how widespread is the problem, really? Hard to say. For its part, Wired pegs the figure at a "small number." I have the black 32GB iPhone 3GS, and so far I haven't noticed any overheating problems at all (or at least nothing out of the ordinary). I also did a quick check of the support forums on Apple.com and Macrumors and only found a few sporadic threads—in fact, I'd say people are more upset about the 3GS's battery life than overheating issues.

Still, you never know, and the problem might blow up in Apple's face—literally—if someone's iPhone 3GS battery explodes.

As Coursey writes, "A mass iPhone recall isn't likely, but it isn't impossible, either. Just see what happens if an iPhone catches fire." Well said.

So, any iPhone 3GS owners out there having any overheating problems? Seeing any brown discoloration on the while model? Let us know.