Does Cold Weather Affect Cell Phones?
Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 6:55PM Does cold weather affect the usefulness or the life of cell phones? Extremely cold temperatures can freeze liquid crystal displays and slow the chemical reaction that gives lithium-ion batteries their charge, but how cold and for how long?
Popular Mechanics ran some tests recently on several cell phone models to find out. The research showed that our phones are pretty durable when it comes to cold weather exposure. Most of the phones tested did well until extended temperatures reached -30 degrees F. Several shut down, and the others had screen dimming and battery malfunctioning. Only one phone tested, an older Motorola Krzr, made it to -55 degrees F before failing.
The phones all came back to life at higher temperatures and with fresh battery charges. The team tried to kill the Krzr completely by dipping it in liquid Nitrogen. Four dunks in the liquid did the trick. Luckily for most of us, we’re not exposing our phones to this type of exposure. The results of the tests confirmed what most of us in cold-weather climates have experienced in our daily lives – cell phones can survive the cold and usually continue to function as long as it doesn’t get unbearably cold. But who really wants to talk on the phone outside when it is -30 degrees? At these temperatures, maybe we should all just focus on finding a hot fire and a warm beverage to thaw out.
Reader Comments (1)
I'm lucky cause my phone hasn't liquid crystals , and he successfully cope with the cold outside! Now i'm really thinking to change my phone and now that i know he won't be affected by the cold outside, i'll buy it with no fear.