BRITS basking in this week’s sunny weather need to watch out for a costly iPhone mistake.
as high as 29C on Thursday, and – but there’s a hidden danger you’ll want to avoid.
Heat is one of the worst things for any gadget with a battery inside – your iPhone included.
In fact, too much heat can cause permanent damage to your iPhone.
It means that your iPhone can stop working properly, slow down, and ultimately deliver less battery life per charge.
“Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause your device to change its behaviour to regulate its temperature,”; explained
“Using an iOS or iPadOS device in very hot conditions can permanently shorten battery life.”;
Temperatures don’t need to rise particularly high to damage your phone either.
It turns out that a hot day is enough to cause major problems.
“It’s especially important to avoid exposing your device to ambient temperatures higher than 35° C (95° F), which can permanently damage battery capacity,”; Apple warned.
“That is, your battery won’t power your device as long on a given charge.
“Charging the device in high ambient temperatures can damage it further.”;
The tech giant added: “Even storing a battery in a hot environment can damage it irreversibly.”;
Even if the outside air temperature isn’t as high as 35C, that doesn’t mean that you’re safe.
Temperatures of gadgets can rise very quickly.
For instance, Apple warns that leaving your iPhone in the car is a major problem – because temperatures can then rise above the recommended 45C maximum storage cut-off.
“Don’t leave your device in your car because temperatures in parked can exceed this range,”; Apple said.
Using your iPhone out in direct sunlight, charging it up in the heat, or doing heavy tasks like or streaming without can all cause temperatures to soar.
And once your iPhone starts to feel very hot, that’s bad news for the battery.
CHECK YOURSELF
You can check how healthy your battery is at any time.
Just unlock your iPhone then head into Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
You can see your Battery Health read-out, which shows how it’s performing.
And then you can look at Maximum Capacity, which lists a percentage read-out.
This shows how much charge your iPhone battery can hold compared to when it was new.
The Maximum Capacity will drop over time as you charge up (and then discharge) your iPhone battery through normal use.
You’d normally expect about 80% capacity after 500 full charge cycles (look at Cycle Count), which typically takes about two years.
But letting your iPhone get hot too often will make it degrade faster.
BAD BILL
An unhealthy battery means you’ll need to charge more often.
And it can also reduce the overall performance of your iPhone too.
Once your battery gets very bad, you’ll start to struggle to get a day’s use out of it.
That means you’ll likely want to fork out for an upgraded model, which is expensive.
However, there’s a cheaper way – although it .
You can purchase a battery replacement at the Apple Store, which usually costs less than £100.
This will give you like-new battery life, and can even boost iPhone performance too.
It’s a far cheaper option than upgrading to a new model, and will let you squeeze more life out of your iPhone.
So to save yourself some (by avoiding upgrades or battery replacements), keep your iPhone nice and cool.
