How to protect a smartphone from frost: some practical tips for users

Usually, if your phone is left in the cold for a few hours, it's not such a big problem, but there are situations when it can seriously harm it.

Here are some practical tips if your smartphone is left in the cold and there are no guarantees of its safety. The selection was created by the Android Authority resource.

If the temperature outside is below zero, this can cause unexpected problems with the phone's battery. The biggest problem — rapid discharge: Depending on how cold it is, a smartphone battery can go from fully charged to completely discharged in a matter of minutes.

Worse still, it will be impossible to recharge the device immediately after such a rapid discharge. But the battery is most likely fine, and the smartphone is most likely fine too.

Also, it's worth keeping in mind that the same principles apply to almost any device with a lithium-ion battery, including laptops, tablets, portable gaming systems, etc.

Don't charge a cold phone

If your phone is not working or turning on, it is most likely not charging. This is because the battery's ability to recharge can be affected by extremely cold temperatures. More on this later in this post.

The phone will now need to warm up to normal temperature before it will start working again. Do not charge your cold phone during this warming up process. Just let it warm up on its own, without the charging cable connected.

You will need to keep your phone turned off for a while

Condensation is another thing to watch out for. This is especially true if your phone is in a humid location. Some of this moisture can seep into the phone in a liquid form. What's more, your phone naturally heats up when it's running. Bringing your phone back to room temperature will liquefy this moisture, and your phone may be susceptible to water damage. If your phone was dropped in the snow and picked up later, it's best to take your chances and let the cold phone dry out before turning it on.

Return your phone to room temperature

Now it's time to get to work. You need to return the frozen phone to average temperatures. This can be as simple as bringing your phone indoors and leaving it for a few hours until it naturally returns to normal.

If you can't wait that long, you can very gently warm up the device by placing it near a warm surface. This could be putting it in your pocket, placing it next to (but not on top of) the radiator, or leaving it on the dashboard of the car while the heater blows hot air.

But you should never put your phone in the oven or microwave, and never put it on something incredibly hot, like an electric stove or hob. You want the device to get a little warm, not to boil. Also, you want the phone to heat up slowly.

Extreme temperature changes can cause components to crack, especially screens. But the screen isn't the only part to worry about. Internal components are also cold, and cracking those components could indicate a much bigger problem.

Why does cold drain a battery?

Interestingly, scientists don't fully understand why this happens. It's clear to science that incredibly cold temperatures drain lithium-ion batteries very quickly, but the reasons for this are still somewhat mysterious. Lithium-ion batteries use chemical reactions to charge, hold that charge, and then release it, and cold slows down these reactions.

Each smartphone battery consists of two parts: an anode and a cathode. When the battery is fully charged, the lithium ions are in the porous graphite located at the anode, and when it is discharged, the ions are at the opposite end in the cathode. Electricity is produced when individual lithium ions flow from the anode to the cathode.

For some reason, when lithium-ion batteries are placed in a cold environment, the chemical reaction caused by the movement of lithium ions is slowed to a minimum — or even stops completely.

The smartphone senses that the battery is no longer producing a charge and lowers the charge counter to 1% or even to 0%. If enough time passes, the phone will turn off.

Only when the battery reaches a higher temperature will the lithium ions start moving normally. Then everything will work as expected again. This is why a cold battery can go from empty to full again simply by heating up: the lithium ions (that is, the amount of charge in the battery) have not completely moved from one end of the battery to the other; they just stopped moving.