I woke up this morning to negative temperatures and the forecast isn’t changing in the next few days. I’ve written about keeping your phone safe in the heat of summer, but what about in frigid weather?
iPhones and other electronic devices are not meant to be kept in extreme temperatures. As frigid winter temperatures are upon many of us, it’s important to remember that our iPhones can’t perform well at extreme temperatures. iPhones have ideal operating temperatures and work best between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Leaving your iPhone in the cold can have unpleasant side effects, similar to when you accidentally leave your phone too long in a hot car in the summer.
Many of us take our phones everywhere we go, we want to have them with us be it to keep in touch or perhaps you just want to listen to your new playlist while hitting the slopes. Personally, I think there’s nothing more peaceful than a good song and a cruise down the ski slope until your music stops! When our phones are out in the cold performance issues can arise. You can experience rapid loss of charge on your battery, your phone could begin to perform erratically and it can even stop working. Over the years I’ve had countless customers come into the store during the winter months concerned they have a failing battery due to poor performance. In most cases, this is just temporary and your battery is just fine. However, continuing to expose your phone to the cold weather can have long-term effects. I recommend keeping your phone close to your body if you have it outside and avoid leaving it behind in your car in the cold. If it’s really cold out and you have to be outside, you might want to just leave your phone where it’s warm!
Batteries in phones have a long history of troubles, it seems. There has been some press lately about battery issues in iPhones in general. When the iPhone X first came out reports buzzed about the performance of phones in the cold, Apple was quick to release a software update. I have not had any troubles with my iPhone X in the cold, but naturally, I’m not using it out in this cold weather. I’m sure many of our readers have heard and read the reports on Apple slowing down older phones running iOS 11, Apple has released an updated battery replacement program for customers.
Battery issues will always arise with our devices, be it heat, cold, operating systems upgrades, location services and more. No matter what generation phone you have, extreme temperatures will always have a negative effect, so do your best to keep your phone safe.
