Smartphones and summer heat in the Gers: what the battery dislikes
Thirty-eight degrees in the shade, forty-five on the terrace table, over sixty in a closed car. The phone, for its part, likes twenty.
A lithium battery degrades with temperature more than with charge cycles. Above 35 °C the chemical reactions that age it speed up; above 45 °C the phone shuts down to protect itself, but part of the damage is already done.
What we see at the workshop after summer
- Batteries at 80% capacity on one-year-old phones, after a summer “in the sun”.
- Swollen batteries, with the screen lifting: heat is the first trigger.
- Marked OLED screens (ghost image) after hours on a dashboard.
- Softened screen adhesives, with the screen coming away at a corner.
The simple habits
- Never in a closed car, never in full sun on a table.
- No fast charging when the phone is already hot; take the case off to charge.
- No GPS navigation on charge on the windscreen in full sun: that is the worst combination.
- If the phone shows the temperature warning, let it cool in the shade, without putting it in the fridge (condensation).
If the battery has suffered
A battery health check (Settings › Battery on iPhone, or at the workshop for Android) tells you where it stands. Below 80%, or with shutdowns, a new battery is a routine repair, done while you wait, price per model on the prices page.
Also worth reading
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The phone in rice: why it is a bad idea, and what to do instead
Rice doesn't draw out water that is already inside, and the time spent in it is corrosion time. The right method, in five steps.
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