Know Your Cell Phone’s Minimum Operating Temperature For The Colder Months Ahead

Although I live in Florida now, from age 0 to 30 I lived in New England, so I have a pretty good idea what it means to deal with harsh weather conditions and winterize things appropriately.

Something that most people don’t give a thought to are the operating temperatures for mobile devices. Every one sold states in the manual what the minimum and maximum temperatures are, and you should know them. If for whatever reason you lost the manual, that’s fine because the information is readily available online.

Most touchscreen phones will not operate in freezing temperatures, and this includes the iPhone where it’s openly stated the minimum operating temperature is 32F/0C. Mobile touchscreen devices can’t handle freezing temperatures the vast majority of the time.

In comparison, the old Motorola RAZR phones can operate at temperatures as low as 14F/-10C (PDF manual). In fact, most non-touchscreen phones – particularly the flip-style variant – can handle freezing temperatures fairly well.

Live in a cold-cold-cold area and need mobile communications to work and stay working?

With a touchscreen phone, you’ll need to keep the thing above freezing temperature at all times just for the thing to work.

If that’s not possible, I would suggest keeping a cheap prepaid backup phone in the car just in case your primary touchscreen phone doesn’t work from a too-cold environment. Touchscreens may look stylish, but style has no place if you get a flat during a snowstorm and need to call for a friend or a tow service for help. As long as the battery is charged and even if it’s below freezing, the phone will work, and that’s all that matters.