How to prevent your phone overheating in the sun

We’ve tested hundreds of phones in dozens of different situations, so we have plenty of first-hand experience of a handset that’s been cooked under the heat of the sun. Smartphones have plenty of protection against certain elements – you’ll often see us refer to IP rating when discussing water- or dust-proofing – but very little to mitigate excess heat, a flaw that can jump from slightly annoying to downright dangerous depending on the severity of the weather.

If you’re worried about going on holiday or just down to the shop on a sunny day with your phone in tow, you’ll find practical advice below on how to avoid your phone getting too hot on a sweltering day, and how to cool it down if the worst does happen.

Why is your phone overheating in the sun?

Even the best phone is designed to operate within a rather narrow temperature range. While this will differ by model, typically the internal temperature of the phone at room temperature should not exceed 45°C although according to Samsung this number is 35°C.

Under normal operation your phone gets hot in the process of converting stored chemical energy in the battery into electricity, and passing that power through its internal components so they can work.

The sun can add extra heat into this base number through solar radiation. Light from the sun hits your phone and is converted to heat. This increases the internal temperature of your phone, and if left to happen long enough that will push the phone over its maximum safe limit.

At best this will lead to your phone desperately trying to cool itself or simply shutting down, but even then continued exposure to direct heat from the sun can lead to a catastrophic failure of the handset.

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Five ways to prevent your phone overheating in the sun

With that in mind, let’s look at key ways you can avoid the sun cooking your smartphone in the first place.

1. Avoid direct sunlight

This is the most obvious piece of advice, but in our experience it’s necessary to put it front and centre anyway. If the sun is the source of your heat issue, then we think it’s logical to remove the source of heat if at all possible.

Try to take your phone out only when in the shade, or to limit the amount of time it’s out in the sun. You can also shade your phone with a hat or some other object while you use it.

One common mistake is to position your phone in your car in such a way that the sun bakes on it constantly. Many people have their phones mounted for use as a GPS, but have positioned it so that the sun cooks it through the windscreen.

Finding a better mounting position or directing one of your car’s air vents on the phone has been an effective antidote to this. Of course, the ideal would be to connect it to an Apple CarPlay or Android Auto head unit, if the vehicle has one. Which allows you to tuck the phone itself away safely.

2. Don’t charge your phone in direct sunlight

Thanks to power banks being common these days, you can keep your phone charged wherever you are. However, charging increases your phone’s temperature, which can be a bad combination with heat from the sun.

Even avoiding direct sunlight might not be enough. For example, if your phone is charging in a bag that’s getting direct sunlight, it may heat the interior of the bag contributing to high temperatures. If you’re going to charge your phone, try to find a shady spot to do it where solar heat won’t add to the already hot process of charging your phone.

3. Lower your screen brightness

This is a tricky one, since we know how hard phone screens are to read in sunlight in the first place and most devices with light sensors will max out the display’s brightness to help. However, LCD and OLED displays generate more heat the brighter they get. So manually turn down the brightness of your phone screen or temporarily turn auto-brightness off while you are in sunlight.

To help see what’s on-screen, try to check your phone screen in the shade, or cover it with your free hand to help make the information on your display more legible.

4. Disable some features

The more things your phone is doing, the more power it uses, and the more heat is generated. So if you reduce the intensity and quantity of activities your phone’s doing it will also reduce heat.

One effective strategy is to activate your phone’s power-saving mode. This will disable all non-essential features in one fell swoop. The phone’s processors will run at a lower speed, some wireless features may be disabled, but overall the thermals should improve significantly.

Of course, you can selectively turn off various features yourself, such as disabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth while leaving everything else alone.

If you are filming or taking photos, try to limit the number of consecutive photos you take, or how long you record continuously. Give the phone a chance to cool down. You can also try recording at a lower resolution or frame rate, which should also reduce how much heat is produced.

5. Remove your phone case

Depending on the design and materials of your phone’s case, there’s some chance that your case may act as a heat trap or otherwise significantly insulate your phone, preventing it from effectively getting rid of heat.

Removing your case may let your phone do a little better in the outdoors heat, though again this depends on the case’s design, materials, and how well ventilated it is.

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How to cool your phone down

If your phone is getting too hot in the sun, there aren’t that many things you can do about it. However, we think it’s important to point out that your phone will tell you if it’s too hot. Just because your phone feels hot in your hand does not necessarily mean that it’s too hot.

A typical modern smartphone will either give you a warning on-screen telling you it’s too hot or if things are really getting too hot, too quickly, it will simply turn itself off. When you get the heat warning, the phone will take measures to reduce heat itself by switching to a lower-power mode, temporarily disabling the camera, and several other emergency measures aimed at curbing the number of Watts coming in from the battery.

Turning your phone off is the fastest way to cool it down, combined with storing it out of direct sunlight, in a cool dry place if possible.

Never put your phone in the fridge or freeze! While it might seem like a good idea, cold temperature, rapid cooling, and condensation, can all lead to a phone that’s just as dead as one that’s severely overheated.

Blowing cool air on your phone may speed up the cooling process, but in our experience about fifteen minutes with the phone off and away from a direct heat source should be enough for things to go back to normal.

In general, using our phones outdoors has never proven to be an issue, but the sun will get to anything given enough time – and with temperatures on the rise the world over, there’s no harm in understanding best practice. If you’re feeling the heat yourself, chances are your smartphone is too.