Does your iPhone work outside?

[Bateluer]

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Environmental requirements

* Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F
(0° to 35° C)
* Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F
(-20° to 45° C)
* Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
* Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

With average temps in Phoenix in the summer easily breaking 110 normally, and this heat wave across the county, anyone notice anything?

I wear my iPod Nano, 3rd Gen, on my arm when I run in the summer and its never froze or locked up due to heat. Left my old Droid 1 in the car while I went running for an hour in the summer heat, came back and it was still on and functional . . .though the temp sensors reported the CPU was hitting ~165. It wasn't in direct sunlight.

 

[amdhunter]

Mine worked fine all day. It only hit 101 here though.

 

[deadlyapp]

My girlfriend's Iphone 4 doesn't work after having the GPS running for a couple hours. It starts to lockup.

 

[Ichinisan]

That's not necessarily a limit. They just want to make sure people don't have unrealistic expectations for normal operating environments.

 

[TuxDave]

165? Geez. I left my iPhone in the car once and it wouldn't let me operate it until it cooled down and gave me an overheat warning. I guess it's better than killing the device.

 

[Printer Bandit]

 

[Deeko]

Yes.

 

[coldmeat]

The opterating temp is included in the nonoperating temp.

I once left my iPod in the car over night in -35C weather. It just had to warm up a bit, then worked fine after.

 

[mesthead21]

Yeah, its happened to my iphone 4 a couple times. You can definitely tell its hotter than it should be. Just takes about 5-10 minutes and its usually fine

 

[CZroe]

Got this last summer with my new iPhone 4. It was sitting on my leg in direct sunlight while I filled out a rental application and used it to look up account details and such. It was probably under 5 mins and not terribly warm outside (San Diego, after all).

 

[shortylickens]

165? Geez. I left my iPhone in the car once and it wouldn't let me operate it until it cooled down and gave me an overheat warning. I guess it's better than killing the device.

I lived in the Mojave desert for a while and inside my garage it could get very hot. Slightly warmer inside the car itself. Anything I left in there was automatically ruined. Always had to eject my CD's when I pulled in which eventually became more hassle than it was worth. Spare water bottles had to be exchanged frequently. Couldnt keep any sort of food stuffs in the trunk, even an emergency MRE was at risk of demise.

Pain in the butt.

However that was still better than leaving the car in direct sunlight all day which is pretty much guaranteed to ruin it in a few years, especially if you have a black interior (which is the standard these days).

 

[Kadarin]

Yeah, the iPhone 4 doesn't like direct sun in the heat, but otherwise it's pretty rugged. Mine survived a dunk in the lake without issue.

 

[Bateluer]

That's not necessarily a limit. They just want to make sure people don't have unrealistic expectations for normal operating environments.

Every spring, summer, and most of fall has temps over 95F in Phoenix. Its normal.

 

[Pliablemoose]

When you sell tens of millions of a device, there's always some idiot that fails to understand leaving a phone in the sun will overheat them.

Some idiot sued over his iPad overheating and lost, so Apple pretty prominently displays temp parameters and lowballs the operating temps on purpose.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I leave my 3GS iPhone in the console of my truck that sits in the sun in over 100F Texas heat (so temp inside truck pushes past 110F) and my iPhone always mostly works- some times the cell reception sucks when its "ouch it hurts to touch it" hot. I have never seen that temperature screen.

 

[CZroe]

Every spring, summer, and most of fall has temps over 95F in Phoenix. Its normal.

Right, so keep it out of direct sunlight and it'll usually be fine. It's pretty well shaded in a pocket... against your 98.6deg body.

When you sell tens of millions of a device, there's always some idiot that fails to understand leaving a phone in the sun will overheat them.

Some idiot sued over his iPad overheating and lost, so Apple pretty prominently displays temp parameters and lowballs the operating temps on purpose.

So the apologists of the Apple Defense Force are, err, out in force-even when they aren't needed. Few would argue that it's a bad thing for a device to protect itself. The temp warning screen has been seen and reported for years before the iPad was even announced. Hell, when I encountered it last year the iPad was brand new and there had been no lawsuit or response to that.

I leave my 3GS iPhone in the console of my truck that sits in the sun in over 100F Texas heat (so temp inside truck pushes past 110F) and my iPhone always mostly works- some times the cell reception sucks when its "ouch it hurts to touch it" hot. I have never seen that temperature screen.

Got tinted windows? Even so, this usually only happens when it is on, in use, AND in direct sunlight. Start charging it while you are at it and you'll surely get this warning.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Right, so keep it out of direct sunlight and it'll usually be fine. It's pretty well shaded in a pocket... against your 98.6deg body.



So the apologists of the Apple Defense Force are, err, out in force-even when they aren't needed. Few would argue that it's a bad thing for a device to protect itself. The temp warning screen has been seen and reported for years before the iPad was even announced. Hell, when I encountered it last year the iPad was brand new and there had been no lawsuit or response to that.

I would have said the same thing had the OP referenced Android devices too, I use my Thunderbolt in full sun over my lunch break and it gets hot as hell, and starts flaking out...

A smarter person would find some shade I guess...

 

[prism]

I live in Phoenix too, had my iPhone 4 since February and haven't had any temperature-related issues (or any other issues for that matter) thus far, and I'm outside quite a bit. I also have a 3rd gen iPod nano in my car at all times, no problems with it either and I have minimal tint.

 

[hanoverphist]

my friends ip4 hasnt had many problems here in phx area this summer, despite the fact that he works out in the sun a lot. i know he keeps it in his pocket for the most part, and usually looks for a shaded area to use it anyway. my droidX has been through the heat many times, and hasnt shown any shutdown screen for temps so far. mine is a bit more extreme, i have used mine in direct sunlight on speakerphone many times. it hasnt really freaked out that i know of, but i know that it wont charge at all when its overheated. it actually drains the battery to have the charger hooked to it. my old samsung phone would shut down at about 130 tho. happened during a few phone calls at work before. really annoying.

 

[VashHT]

Never had this happen to my ip4. Only phone I've had it happen on was my n900, and that's because it was sitting in my cup holder charging with the sunroof open. I've had a lot of android phones and some wp7 as well and none of those overheated on me.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I've used my phone at over 3000 meters, worked fine.

 

[Kev]

My phone got so hot once it displayed a message saying the phone wouldn't turn on because it was too hot.

 

[Oyeve]

Nope, doesnt work inside either. I just use it on wifi to play netflix.

 

[akugami]

Every spring, summer, and most of fall has temps over 95F in Phoenix. Its normal.

Took it to the beach over the weekend (not the first time) and with 101 degree temperature it still worked fine in the shade under the beach umbrella. Just don't sit it in direct sunlight. Although devices like the HTC Droid's operating temperature is 32F to 104F, the iPhone 4's effective operating temperature is about the same even though it might be listed as 32F to 95F. On paper it sounds like the HTC Droid would be significantly more tolerant to heat but I think this is just a case of Apple covering their own backside. Honestly, the warning is to cover their asses in case you sit it in direct sunlight and it locks up or shuts down due to heat.

Not picking on the HTC Droid in any way since its operating temperature is fine, it's just a convenient example of how specs on paper may not always match up. Just like how Apple's battery life claims on most of its devices are spot on while battery life claims have usually been on a best case scenario for most OEM's.

 

[Ichinisan]

Every spring, summer, and most of fall has temps over 95F in Phoenix. Its normal.

Yeah. They're just saying: If you work in an environment that's 100 degrees all day long, your phone might not perform perfectly.

They aren't saying it shuts down at 95 degrees.