Many smartphone users can attest to this, cold and mobile phones do not go well together. We all remember that time when a black screen suddenly appeared on our smartphone while the battery was still announcing 40% autonomy a few seconds earlier. With the current temperatures, it is better not to forget your precious mobile in the car, otherwise you will find it completely discharged!

The Swiss newspaper Le Matin interviewed Apple's support department, which states that fourth-generation Apple devices, those manufactured from September 2013 and running iOS 11, "are unusable in extreme cold. As soon as the device reaches 0°C, the touch screen becomes insensitive. At -5 °C, the machine shuts down altogether so as not to damage its internal system ”. Older generation iPhones are more resistant to lower temperatures.

Electrochemical reactions are becoming rare

If your smartphone lets go of you, it's often the fault of the lithium-ion batteries that now equip many models and don't really like falls from temperature. "As the temperature drops, the electro-chemical reactions inside the battery allowing the release of energy are reduced, explains the specialized site Lesnumeriques.com. Lithium is therefore less efficient, the molecular reactions become rarer and the battery functions less well, or even ceases all activity".

Lesnumeriques.com, which stands out for its technical comparisons of high-tech devices, conducted an interesting experiment last year by placing seven smartphones in a freezer. At 5°C, three devices saw their autonomy drop sharply (between -42% and -14.63%). Four others, on the other hand, maintained their endurance or even strangely gained in autonomy! A gain that the testers saw persist at -2°C.

At -16°C, all the devices end up cracking

However, in very cold weather, all the devices tested ended up discharging, even if some smartphones held up better than others. others: " Unsurprisingly at the time of the final blow, everyone finally cracks, stuck by -16°C, but the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7 edge still shine with respective autonomy of nearly 10 and 12 hours (-16% and -28%) ”.

Another specialized site Phonandroid.com offers advice on how to avoid the black screen in freezing weather: such as favoring the inside pockets of your coat and " if your smartphone has turned off after being exposed to the cold for a long time, do not you don't stubbornly turn it back on. Its battery is momentarily out of service".