Recording video in 4K at 60 frames per second is understandably an intensive undertaking, but you'd hope that your phone could handle it without overheating. Unfortunately, reports suggest that the brand-new Pixel 5a gets too hot while shooting video and asks you to close the camera until temperatures return to a more reasonable level.

Tech reviewer TechOdyssey (@AdamJMatlock) took to Twitter to complain that his Pixel 5a took just a few minutes to overheat while recording video at the highest possible settings, before displaying the following message at the top of the screen: "Device is too hot. Close Camera until device cools off."

That was apparently at a not exactly roasting 70°F indoors with the air conditioning turned on, which is more than a little disappointing. Another Twitter user (@LadyRedsTekRvw) jumped in to confirm that their 5a did the same thing after about 2 minutes of recording at 4K 60fps, but more worryingly still, TechOdyssey says it's happening for him 4K fps30 and 1080P 30fps, too. We can only hope that these users have defective units since Ryne didn't notice any such issues while reviewing the Pixel 5a.

Some users suggest that this also happens with the Pixel 5, and since I have that phone on hand, I did a little test. After more than 11 minutes of recording at 4K60, it was running super hot but no such warning. However, when I stopped recording and plugged in (the battery was about to go), then returned to the camera app, the message did indeed pop up to tell me to close the camera app. At this point, after a long recording and then hooking up to the power, that's more understandable, although it is also a little cooler here (around 60°F). It sounds like the Pixel 5a might not be able to handle high temperatures quite so well, though.

We'll get Ryne on the case to do some more testing once the US team wakes up, so check back later for more clarity on the situation. We've also reached out to Google for comment.

UPDATE: 2021/08/19 8:36am PDT BY RYNE HAGER

Confirmed in testing

I'M AWAKE.

We did some back-to-back testing with our Pixel 5a and a handful of other devices, and we did observe troublingly short 4K 60fps recording on the phone compared to other devices. Notably, the Pixel 5 seems to have the same (if not worse) issue:

  • Pixel 5a: 5:05 (Before it cut out with a heat warning.)
  • Pixel 5: 1:31 (Before it cut out with a heat warning.)
  • Pixel 4 40:00 (Before I got bored — though note it only supports 4K 30, not 4K 60. Felt it might be a useful point of comparison in-family anyway.)
  • Galaxy S21 45:00 (Before I got bored.)
  • OnePlus 9 Pro: 5:00 (Before it stopped with no warning — seems to be a software limit for 4K 60 recordings.)

All tests were done at 73 degrees ambient with a few minutes to cool after booting, if the devices were not already powered on prior to testing. Still shoddy science, but good enough for some ballpark indicators.

We'll see what Google says about the problem or if it can be addressed with a later update. But given the Pixel 5 has a similar issue in our testing, Google's at least consistent.