HTC One M9’s Snapdragon 810 capable of reaching alarmingly high temperatures [UPDATE]

Early reports of overheating issues with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC may not have been entirely unfounded. It’s one of the reasons it was reported early on that Samsung would go with their own chipset for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Despite LG’s claims to the contrary, someone was finally able to put these claims to the test.

The folks at Dutch site Tweakers.net got a hold of an HTC One M9 and after putting it through a benchmarking stress test, found that the phone got hot… real hot. According to their heat sensing camera, the phone was capable of reaching upwards of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 Celsius). This was significantly warmer than comparable devices like the iPhone 6 Plus, LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, or even its predecessor, the HTC One M8 — all of which hovered around the 104-degree mark (40 Celsius).

A few things to keep in mind: this was a stress test. The GFXBench used was meant to push a device to its limits, one that not even 3D games like Asphalt 8 or Assassin’s Creed: Pirates were capable of reaching. When playing those same games, the One M9 was able to keep much reasonable temperatures, capping out at around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). 

Also, let’s not forget that this was a stress test performed on a device running non-final software and shouldn’t be reflective of normal day-to-day use. While the benchmark did cause the phone to get much warmer than competing devices, a lot can change from now and when the phone is eventually released as this is something that could be easily corrected in a software update (at the cost of slightly lower benchmarks).

UPDATE: After the above news started making the rounds, HTC Communications Manager Jeff Gordon tweeted out the following statement:

PSA: One more time, all together now: HTC One M9 software isn’t final yet, no matter how many pre-release benchmarks you run.

— Jeff Gordon (@urbanstrata) March 16, 2015