I plan to take a long driving trip soon for Christmas break. I was going to use my iPhone 4 and my newly purchased Tom Tom app during the trip, but I'm concerned about battery usage and heat. If I plug the phone into the cigarette lighter, will it stay charged? And will I have to worry about overheating?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iphone 4 battery while using tom tom on a long trip
- Thread starter calvy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Remove any case you might have, otherwise heat might get trapped and overheat the phone.
Try keeping the cabin ventilated too. I would occasionally unplug the charger for 10~15 minutes to let it cool down before plugging it in again.
Try keeping the cabin ventilated too. I would occasionally unplug the charger for 10~15 minutes to let it cool down before plugging it in again.
+1 to all of this
lcd screen+gps+ 3G +charging the phone = lots of heat
your best bet is to make sure it doesn't get too warm ( could get an AC vent mount) otherwise it will complain and temporarily need to cool down
I am not sure how long of a trip you are taking but it worked great on the 11 hour drive I had in October. Just to be safe I turned the TomTom application off on some of the 200 miles stretches of freeway.
I am confused, why would the phone overheat? You telling me you can't actually use it for all this?
I have used tomtom for hours with my iPod and it never heated up at all on it's own, tomtom doesn't use the radio to download a lot of content because all the maps are on the device. So basically it is about as much work as playing a movie.
At any rate if you are worried about heat try to keep the sun off the thing, some times the iPod was super hot after a drive in FL last summer but it never complained once.
I have used tomtom for hours with my iPod and it never heated up at all on it's own, tomtom doesn't use the radio to download a lot of content because all the maps are on the device. So basically it is about as much work as playing a movie.
At any rate if you are worried about heat try to keep the sun off the thing, some times the iPod was super hot after a drive in FL last summer but it never complained once.
Get a 1amp (1000 ma) charger like this one...
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.48925
Most car chargers are only .7amp (700ma) and your iPhone will slowly loose its charge if you have BT & Data & GPS on at the same time.
I have a measly 5 watt charger and even that one is able to charge my iPhone 4 +5% every hour while having tomtom on. The charger isn't strong enough for my wifes 3GS when running tomtom or my ipad doing nothing for that matter, but the iPhone 4 is allright. It does get warm indeed, bit if you hold it in front of an air vent it will cool down within a few minutes. You can do it while resting. I've used it maximum 2,5 hours at a time and it's working very well.
alecgold, your not having a problem because your 5 watt charger is 1amp. (Amps = Watts/Volts i.e 1 amp = 5 watts/5 volts.)
The .7 amp chargers are only 3.5 watts and that's why they are unable to keep iPhones charged when using BT & Data & GPS at the same time. ( .7a = 3.5watts/5volts).
dealextreme ships from china don't they? I'm guessing if that's the case I wouldn't get it before I leave on the 15th.
My trip is a 16 hour road trip. And in my experience, using the GPS and data at same time can cause the phone to heat up. But I'll do as mentioned and remove the case. Should be good. I just need to make sure the car cigarette adapter I have can provide enough power. The thing I'm using now came with my Richard Solo 1800 battery pack. I have no idea what it's rated at.
Your car charger should be 5w (most are). Check the small text on the actual charger to see, otherwise, just buy one from Radioshack or something.
DealExtreme ships from Hong Kong, yeah. I actually live in Hong Kong (<1km to their main office, hah) and most of the time it takes 2+ weeks to get stuff to me so I expect it takes even longer when shipping overseas.
Definitely remove the case, especially if you're going for such a long road trip. I went on a 2 hour trip with my cased i4 mounted playing music and navigating. It showed the Temperature Warning screen, although to be fair it was 30+ degrees outside.