Will my iPhone work this winter?
By David Fisher. Filed in technology |Tags: Uncategorized
I was looking on Apple’s website, and it seems that the operating temperature of the iPhone is pretty limited! It’s between freezing and 95F. The non-operating (when in the world is your iPhone turned off?) temperatures are between -4F and 113F.
I know that sounds reasonable to anyone living in Cupertino where the weather is always nice, but I seriously hope they just spec’d that too tightly and are “playing it safe”. People living in Phoenix or Boston might have different experiences.
While I know that my pocket will help insulate it a bit, but in Boston the record low temperature is -12F. The temperature hangs out below freezing for the greater part of winter. If you take a trip to Mount Washington in the winter, it’s reached down to -17F there! Wind speeds have reached 231mph there, so factor in wind chills accordingly. Ok, I’m not likely go visit there in such a storm, but I’m just illustrating for people that live in Florida that it can get amazingly cold here. Engadget seems to think it will still work ok but I’m really wondering what’s going to happen if you repeatedly do that.
Will Apple’s support no longer support you if you try to use the iPhone outside in Boston in February?
My best guesses are (for what will happen to the phone) is that the screen’s display will get very sluggish, and that the battery life will tank. Keep that charger cable on you! I know that my camera batteries go down massively in the cold (from around 400+ exposures, to ~100), and that my old iPod screens got all super-slow refreshing in the freezing weather.
On the flip side, what about the high temperature performance? My family live in NC and it gets above 95F there during August quite often. People living in places like Phoenix think that 95F in the summer is a cool day. I know that it gets well above the 113F some days even. I already think that my Macbook Pro seems to nearly overheat all of the time, I’d rather my phone not!