You’ll definitely want to know how to protect your phone from overheating, especially when temperatures soar. You probably know all about keeping your cool in hot weather, but have you ever thought about your phone? The device you’re carrying is especially important, and it’s just as prone to overheating as you are.
Not only can a phone get too hot to hold, but extreme temperatures can also cause performance issues and permanent damage – especially to the battery. When you drop several hundred dollars on a new phone, that’s the last thing you want.
Fortunately, it is very easy to keep your phone temperature comfortable. Here’s how to prevent your phone from overheating
Keep it out of the sun
The biggest source of heat in hot weather is the sun, which means the best course of action is to keep your phone away from it. After all, if you don’t want to sit in direct sunlight for extended periods of time, neither does your phone.
So avoid spots that get a lot of sunlight, or that heat up to dangerously high temperatures throughout the day. Cars, greenhouses, window sills, or any spot exposed to direct sunlight. It’s best to stick to cooler rooms, such as those with air conditioning, or shady places where the heat isn’t so intense.
Take off the box
Phone cases are useful for a lot of things, but reducing heat in general isn’t one of them. No matter what condition you have, it’s basically just another layer of insulation that keeps the heat inside. So it’s best to take it off if you want to help keep your phone cool and avoid overheating.
Of course, if your case is more than just a fashion statement, and has some practical use, you might want to keep it if you’re heading out into the world. But if you’re at home, work, or staying in one place for a while, you should consider stripping it down and letting your phone get some ventilation.
By the same logic, it’s also best to keep your phone out of your pocket. Especially if you are already very hot or wearing black pants.
Avoid energy-intensive applications
Weather or not, some apps and processes can be very intense, causing your phone to work hard and produce some amount of extra heat in the process. So be sure to avoid things like photo and video editing, gaming, performance-boosting modes, and even prolonged camera use.
It’s also helpful to turn off some features that you don’t use, such as GPS or Bluetooth. Although it doesn’t generate a great deal of heat once it’s on, every extra degree counts when it comes to overheating.
No fast or wireless charging
Charging a phone is more convenient than ever these days, but you’re better off avoiding the fast and wireless options when the temperature gets too hot. The problem is that both of these charging options tend to produce excess heat, which is not what you want when you are trying to cool down your phone.
If you need to recharge, be sure to use a slow wired connection if possible. Or, at least, do it in a cool place so that any excess heat has nowhere to go.
Avoid water and freezer
Force cooling is the worst thing you can do to prevent the phone from overheating. The phone does not like rapid changes in temperature and you may end up causing additional damage to your phone in the process.
Running your phone under a tap, or submerging it in water, puts you at risk of causing water damage – IP rating or not. Not only can you be confused about the IP rating limits, but your phone’s waterproof seals may have been damaged without you even realizing it. Likewise, placing the phone in the refrigerator or freezer runs the risk of water condensing inside your phone and causing problems.
Above all, the warranty will not cover water damage. Even if the phone came with an IP68 rating.
But the fans are fine
The fan does not pose any of the same risks as using water or ultra-fast cooling. A regular fan will work on a phone the same way it would on a human. The fan will help reduce the heat around the phone, but in a slower and safer way for the device itself. More so if you combine it with other heat breaker tips.
buy phone cooler
As obvious as it might sound, there’s also a simple solution if you have some money to spare: buy a specialized phone cooler. These devices are what you might imagine if there was a kid in a fan and a phone case. You can attach it to the back of your phone, with either a clip or some kind of magnet (including MagSafe) and the device can start to reduce the heat.
Coolers work using a combination of heat sink and fan-based technology, which means they’re more efficient than putting your phone in the path of a fan. They can also be found relatively inexpensively, with Amazon offers a number of options (Opens in a new tab) Under $15. However, some of the more advanced models, such as Razer MagSafe Phone Cooler (Opens in a new tab)at a cost of $60.