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iPhone 11 iPhones and Cold Weather
- Thread starter Hulldown
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Hey—Canadian here, maybe I can answer some questions. The deep winter cold (and where I live it can regularly be -40 outside in the winter) is definitely hard on phones—and you're right, the screens will seem sluggish when chilly.
It's mostly battery I see issues with, and when extremely cold they'll just power the phone off because the chemistry doesn't let it put out enough charge so the phone think's it's dead and will shut off—there are times where it'll be so cold that I can plug in in the car and it doesn't register it's even taken a charge.
All told, though, once the phone warms back up again everything goes back to normal: screen refresh rate and battery life, and in 13(!) years of owning iPhones I can't say any of mine have been permanently damaged by the cold.
There's actually a usage rating for the phone as recommended by Apple — https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201678 — "Use iOS devices where the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause the device to change its behavior to regulate its temperature. Using an iOS device in very cold conditions outside of its operating range might temporarily shorten battery life and could cause the device to turn off."
Yeah. I’ve seen it happen as high as 90% battery on mine. You can take it off the charger, it says full—but if the device itself is too cold it just turns off and there’s no reviving it til it warms.
too cold and it just shuts down...happened to my iPhone 7 Plus few years back when i was taking pictures under the rain in cold weather.lmao.my mistake was to charge the phone before making sure it was dry,thus it was damaged.
I am actually concerned about the cold permanently damaging the screen. The battery issue I understand. Its cold here and we have sporadic heating. The phone hasnt shut down on me but the screen does get sluggish at times. I am just not sure if the cold can really mess up the display for good.
What about the display? Did you ever had any persistent or permanent display issues due to cold?
This is very true!
Many iPhone users are very picky about their displays, and even minor/edge case problems get picked up on pretty quickly here and elsewhere. For instance, there is a thread with well over 6,000 (!!!) replies in which people are arguing about whether the new phones have displays that are calibrated to be too warm/yellow.
I don't think you need to go looking for problems that haven't been reported. If it doubt, get AppleCare+ (which I think is a good deal for most people anyway).
THat makes sense. if cold was ruining screens, we would have heard about it a lot more.
You need to define really cold weather. It turns off even on the regular winter, while you can still use Samsung and other Android phones.
Now I've heard it all, not one person I know who uses a iPhone has said their phone turns off in normal winter weather. 🤦♂️😂
Give it a rest mate, we know you hate iPhone, no need to spread false information around. 🤦♂️
-15F here in Alaska every morning this week, no issues at all with my iPhone. Haven't had a single shut down due to cold weather on ANY phone I've used up here.
No. It may up in Fairbanks where -30 to -40 is relatively common in the winter, but almost any phone will perform sluggishly in those temperatures. I recently switched back from a Galaxy Note 10 to a 12 Pro Max full time, and the Note 10 honestly had significantly more issues in colder weather.
The sluggishness I am talking about is the LCD display due to the 'liquid' part being so cold. Not the phone performance per se. Its subtle but I can see some ghosting on the LCD screen when its super cold.
LCDs get "slow" in cold weather. I've seen that on many cars I've had, especially if I leave them outside. It's normal and doesn't do anything permanent damage, and goes back to normal once it gets to a normal temperature.
Swede here. I had one iPhone (don't remember which model, maybe somewhere around the 5 and 6) that was bloody useless even during fairly mild winter days; it would just shutdown if I had it out to take pics of the beautiful snowy landscape.
I've never had any phone actually break due to cold, though; and even with that oversensitive one it was only a matter of getting it warm again (like a couple of minutes in a pocket).
I've never had any phone actually break due to cold, though; and even with that oversensitive one it was only a matter of getting it warm again (like a couple of minutes in a pocket).
Thats good to know! My phone doesnt shut down in the morning (we dont have central heating) but the screen gets ghosty and smeary a little but fixes once its warms up. HOpe it doesnt cause issues long term.
Another Swede here. My experience is that the metal backed phones are the ones that were prone to shutting down in cold temperatures. I haven’t had any issues with iPhones from the 8/X and forward.
My son use a hand me down 7, it shuts off after about 15 minutes in sub zero temperatures, even with a good battery at 97%.
My son use a hand me down 7, it shuts off after about 15 minutes in sub zero temperatures, even with a good battery at 97%.
Sorry, I’ve been offline for a couple days. To respond to your q: up above, I concur with the Alaskans and the Swedes. Smeary and slow, yes, when cold but no permanent damage. You’d never know to look at it now.