Winter weather can affect the performance of your smartphone: especially the battery is not fond of temperatures below freezing. Here’s how to keep a smartphone in tip-top shape even in winter.
Our smartphone goes everywhere today, through all kinds of weather. Most of today’s smartphones can take a beating, but winter weather can provoke strange behavior. In particular, smartphone batteries don’t seem to tolerate the cold very well. That can cause you to have to reach for a charger after a winter walk. Why is that and how do you protect your smartphone from winter temperatures?
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Not too hot, not too cold
Although smartphones are designed to tolerate different weather conditions, they are not completely insensitive to temperature. Your device’s user manual should normally state somewhere the optimal temperature range within which the smartphone is comfortable. This can vary from model to model, but most manufacturers use a range of 0°C to 35°C.
These are certainly not hard limits: you can still use your smartphone when the mercury drops below zero degrees Celsius. Scientific research has admittedly shown that freezing temperatures affect a device’s health. A 2022 study looked into the limits of Android devices and iPhones and found that extreme freezing temperatures (colder than -20°C) render a smartphone unusable in less than 10 minutes. The iPhone proved to be a just a little more cold-resistant than the average Android smartphone.
We won’t reach such extremes anytime soon in our temperate climate, but prolonged exposure to temperatures just below freezing can also damage the health of your device. Just as you need to give your smartphone extra protection from overheating during a heat wave, you also need to handle your smartphone carefully during cold weather.
Ballet of electrons
To test the impact of cold on a battery, we first need to understand what goes on inside your smartphone’s battery. The most common battery type in consumer electronics, as well as in electric cars, is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. This type of battery is characterized by high energy density and long life. The main components of the battery are the negative (anode) and positive (catode) electrons and a separator that separates the two poles.
Using the battery causes an electrochemical reaction in which the anode oxidizes and passes its electrons along an electrolyte to the catode. This causes reduction in the catode and thus your battery percentage decreases. A charger chases a current through the battery, causing the process to go in the opposite direction, moving the electrons back toward the anode.
Changes in temperatures, both increases and decreases can affect this process and curtail a battery’s ability to supply power as well as hold power. As a result, the capacity of the battery in freezing temperatures may be lower, as much as seventy percent or less of its normal capacity, thus draining the battery faster. Consequently, this can also affect the rate at which your device recharges.
Extreme freezing temperatures (colder than -20°C) can render a smartphone completely unusable in less than ten minutes.
Spoiling LCD screens
Most of today’s smartphones have an OLED screen, but LCD is also still frequently used for cheaper devices. With LCD screens, there is an additional risk when the mercury drops below zero degrees. In and LCD screen are liquid crystals, the abbreviation means languit liquid crystal display, and liquids freeze at freezing temperatures.
The most inconvenience you are likely to experience is that the screen simply responds more slowly to screen touches. But “spots” or “ghosting” (an effect that occurs when pixels change color too slowly) can also occur. Cracks and other permanent screen damage are also more likely to occur if you drop your device in freezing temperatures.
Keep your smartphone warm
Is it freezing and you still need to move around? Then make sure you adequately protect your smartphone from the cold temperatures. You don’t have to do anything special to do that: carrying your smartphone in your pocket instead of a bag or backpack often provides enough warmth.
If you go out for a longer period of time or the temperature drops below freezing, you might consider wrapping the device in a sock or glove for extra warmth. What you definitely shouldn’t do is leave your smartphone overnight in a car parked outside: this could cause it to stop waking up.
In freezing temperatures that we experience on average in Belgium, the battery is the biggest worry child. Make sure you always leave with a well-charged battery and, if necessary, turn off some settings to avoid overloading the battery. Read this article for additional tips to keep your battery in tip-top shape through the four seasons.