Too hot to handle! How to stop your smartphone overheating during the heatwave

With the UK currently experiencing temperatures often associated with more tropical climates, trying not to overheat in the sun has become a top priority for Brits.

However, protecting your tech is also important in this kind of weather. To ensure you don’t fall foul of having to repair a melted handset, Andrew Cartledge, mobile expert at e2save, has provided some top tips on the best ways to stop your phone from overheating, and what to do if it does:

“It’s easier than you’d think for your phone to overheat, although they normally perform optimally up to 35 degrees. However, with temperatures soaring towards the 30s this week, leaving your smartphone out in the sun could cause damage to your battery, processor and even your screen, which can be irreparable.

“There are a few simple things you can do to ensure your phone doesn’t overheat, to keep it running efficiently so you can sunbathe to your heart’s content without fear of any disasters.”

Put it somewhere cooler

This may sound obvious but minimising the time your phone is exposed to this intense heat is the first port of call for cooling it down. If you’re outside then keep it in the shade, either hidden under a seat or tucked away in a bag – just somewhere where it won’t be subject to the sunlight. If you can feel it getting too hot, move it inside and put it on a surface out of the sun.

Reduce the screen brightness

Keeping your screen backlight on a reasonable brightness will minimise the use of your battery, which is ultimately one of the main components that heats up when being used at high capacity. Doing this will keep the internal temperature of your phone down and prolong your battery life at the same time.

Close apps you aren’t using

Your smartphones are capable of running multiple different tasks at once, but this asks a lot of processor and battery, which will make your phone hot, especially if in a hot external environment. By shutting down your unused apps that may still be running in the background on your phone, this will drastically reduce the amount of processing power your handset is using and will minimise the risk of it overheating, even in the height of summer.

Utilise battery saver mode

Battery saver mode is a common feature on smartphones and is primarily used to conserve and prolong battery life. Using that will deactivate background processes, such as live location checks and background data, which will keep your battery running at a lower capacity and will therefore keep your phone cool.

Remove the case

If your phone is getting hot and overheating, having a tightly packed case around it is only making things worse. By removing the phone case you’ll enable heat to escape through the back of the phone and utilise the handsets naturally designed heat vents, which may have otherwise been blocked.

What to do if your phone does overheat

Today’s handsets are typically pretty good at recovering from things like overheating. If you do get a notification that your handset has become too hot, the best thing to do is to get it out of the sun as soon as possible, ideally placing it on a cool surface indoors and away from sunlight.

One thing to definitely avoid is putting the handset in the fridge or doing anything that will cause a sudden drop in temperature, as this can be just as detrimental to the hardware. Instead, give your smartphone plenty of time to recover and cool down over time. Eventually it will cool down and function normally again.

For more information about e2save, visit: https://www.e2save.com/