This explanation is like missing the forest for the trees. Instagram isn’t CAUSING the high temps. The high temps are a result—only!—of an inherent power inefficiency of the A17 Pro, due to manufacturing process, in the application it is being used, whereby the excess heat derived from the processing work is not being adequately handled and effectively dispersed.
It is a physics problem; it is a design problem; it is an engineering problem; but it is only coincidentally a software problem.
Now, certainly, it may eventually be determined that the excess heat being generated by the CPU is found to be a fabrication issue, a manufacturing flaw in only some number of chips produced rather than a flaw in the A17 design. Maybe not all chips produced have the issue, and Apple will have to either replace (many) units under warranty, or throttle performance (which they already got sued for doing in Batterygate).
Or, certainly, maybe it will be discovered that it is a manufacturing issue with the thermal heat conduction/elimination mechanism employed… poorly-applied or non-existent thermal paste, or bent or disjoint heat shielding. We’ve seen these kinds of production problems before, they happen.
However both would be Apple’s problems to fix.
But if they are NOT the cause, then it is, quite simply, a failure of Apple design and engineering: phones should NEVER GET 120°. Simple as that. Regardless of the code run on them. It would mean that Apple purposely used a chip that generates heat beyond what they (even could have) designed the chassis to dissipate in order to meet a pre-defined performance goal, to hell with the consumer. Very “un-Apple”… or at least -we’d- think, but perhaps not… greed—and the desperation it can cause—is an interesting bedfellow.
Finally, most certainly, poorly performing code *can* unduly red-line a CPU, and the code should be better written. But if the resulting heat issue is an inherent problem, none of us should accept as “normal” a PHONE operating at external temperatures exceeding that of the human body.
